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The Land of Sun and Song 



BV 



JOHN PRESTON CAMPBELL, 

t V 

AUTHOR OF 

QuEEx Sylvia," ''The Peri's Pardon," '"'The Summerless Sea, 
'•'Lady AulinXt," "There is no Unbelief," etc. 




TOPEKA, KANSAS : 
THE GEO. W. CRANE PUBLISHING COMPANY. 

iSS8. 



7S 12^^ 



Copyright, 1888, 
By John Preston Campbell. 



TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE 

JOHX A. MARTIN, 

GOVERNOR OF KANSAS, 

THIS POEM IS DEDICATED BY 

THE AUTHOR. 



DEDICATORY NOTE. 



-NIy Dear and Honored Governor, John A. ^Iartix : 

I dedicate to you this poem, parth' because of the apparent fitness of dedicating 
a Kansas poem to a Kansas Governor ; parth- from my profound admiration for your 
excellent and unparalleled governorship over the favored, ambitious and growing 
State of Kansas; and partly out of my friendly and continuing respect for yourself 
as an upright citizen of my adopted State. 

I might assign the further very laudable reason for this act of esteem, that your 
highh- cultured and richly endowed mind will readily grasp the grandeur of the sub- 
ject matter which I have meditated and written upon, and that 3'ou, from your high 
station, ma}', b}' word, act, or silent approval, lend the greatness of 3-our influence to 
cheer the writer along the bright, beautiful, but dangerous, pathway of literary life. 

To those mortals whom honors, distinctions and crowns descend upon, we, in the 
common walks of life, ofttimes come with much hesitanc}^, fearing that the boon 
craved will be denied, and that a blighting disappointment will blast and darken life's 
prospects thereafter. 

But, dear Governor, I come not thus to you, with my tribute to "The Land of 
Sun and Song; " for who ever approached th^' rooms of state or happj' home, asking 
a favor, and was turned empty handed away ? 

Xot like the tumultuous and unsatisfactory" governorship of some sister States, 
has thy tenure of nearly" four years been; but a peaceful, progressive, vigorous, just 
and generous executive rule. Thou hast had the wisdom to choose about thee, as an 
•Executive Council, a corps of prompt, active, capable, true officials, whose assistance, 
under thy just, judicious, and conscientious direction, has contributed to place the 
State of Kansas "in the foremost files of time." The civilized world gazes with 
enraptured admiration at the beauty, being and lovely brightness of her youthful 
Goddess, whose rare charms are decoying many admirers within thy jurisdiction, 
both from neighboring States, and continents as well. 

'Tis an honor, the highest honor of earth, to be an enrolled citizen of such a State, 
in whatever humble walk one may be ; biu to have honorably, successfully, fearlessly 



6 DEDICA TOR Y XO TE. 

and fairly governed such a people, aided in such a progress, and to have gained such 
an envious renown, is assuredly such a life record as will be rewarded above with a 
diadem of beautiful brightness which shall never be taken from thy brow. 

The poetic effort herewith submitted may bring to the author's name little re- 
nown ; but thine is established in the hearts of thy subjects, recorded on the official 
records of our State, and engraven upon the tablets of eternity with the diamond- 
pointed pen of the ages. 

Whate'er the fate of the poem be in the arena of the literary world, it has been 
my dream for years ; it is the result of much, very much, labor, and must have been 
written in order that the writer might turn from the musical soundings of the song. 

Should' St thou discover a fault in the dedication, pray do not look with a frown 
on the author thereof; for he would grieve, indeed, were his act the cause of bringing 
a frown to the face of one on which the impi-ess of displeasure hath been so seldom 
seen. 

Should the first perusal of the poem produce unfavorable impressions, please give 
it a second reading, for "first impressions" are sometimes wrong. 

To you, dear Governor, I dedicate the poem; and submit it to the, public with 
deference to its judgment. 

INIost truly and affectionately, 

Your obedient servant, 
Abilene, Kansas, April, 1888. C. 



INTRODUCTION BY THE AUTHOR. 



This introduction is not written with the view of preparing the pub- 
lic beforehand for the kindly reception of the poem; but, rather, as a 
kind of leave-taking from the theme which has so long engrossed my 
thoughts, calling the Muses around my midnight lamp. Their whispers 
celestial, and the sound of my scribbling pen, sustained me during the 
production of the following cantos; but now that ^Hhe sacred nine" 
have left me, and that the poem is completed, the author feels a sense 
of loneliness for conversational companionships ; because the habit of 
writing, when once really formed, is much like any other habit, pro- 
ducing a life-felt want which must find expression in some form of 
written composition. 

Knowing this, kind reader, you will not think it strange that the 
author yet lingers, in memory at least, endeavoring to link some suit- 
able sentiment, of protective tendency, by means of this introduction, 
to the most beloved of all the children of his Muses, ere sending this 
young child adrift upon the dangerous breakwaters of public opinion, 
to be tossed, perchance, about the literary world's wide ocean for a 
time, and to go down at last like a waif wafted into the maelstrom of 
death and darkness. 

Now, I do not propose to let this child of my literary household thus 
perish. I will never consent to stand upon the shore of life's ocean, 
passively meditating upon the sublimity of the gathering dangers, the 
darkening heavens, or the wild swirl of the angered spray, and see this 
favorite fondling go down, if an intellectual life-boat can proffer any 



8 IXTR OB i r TIOX B \ ' THE A i 'THOR. 

aid, or a vigilant lookout posted on fame's Parnassian heights waft it 
a signal of safety from the pursuing rabble, who may, for mere roman- 
tic pastime, attempt to run it to death. 

Further : I contemplate, as a matter of precaution, the sending out 
of some guards once in a while, equipped and eager for adventure on 
fame's fresh fields, instructed to show particular friendship for this 
stray fledgling, as it shall mature and become a recognized heir to some 
part of the honored inheritance of the eternal estate of bright and beau- 
tiful Kansas. 

With such an heirship the life of this poetic child is assured, whether 
the words live or die which announce its birth. The ordinary vision 
mav not see that the fair Goddess of Kansas is attended bv angels and 
seraphim who guard her in her youthful walks, and whom the guide, 
Intelligence, is directing, e'en now, upward to a high and intellectual 
station, which the artists of the world are destined to gaze at when they 
paint the Picture of Earthly Glory for presentation at the bar of God, 
as the doings of eternity unfold on the judgment morn. 

As the eastern Eden was the scene of the world's first historic acts, 
miracles and mysteries, so this western Garden of God is destined to 
mark the crowning developments, the progression of the ages, and the 
ultimate earthly achievements of humanized humanity. 

To be a citizen of such a State, I deem the highest honor which 
earth aftbrds ; but to have oftered a poetic tribute to her memory, under 
favor of the Muses, may justly be compared to tasting the elixir of life 
from the o'erflowing cup of human joys. Remember I say " a poetic 
tribute." Time will tell whether mine be such, or not. 

Reader, if you are here on a visit from another State, and " can see 
nothing in the poem but a lot of extravagant imaginings," pray lend 
the volume to a Kansan; for dull the eyes and dead the source of 
song in every Kaiisan who '^can see nothing in the poem." If 
there wasn't a word in the volume save the title, it seems to me that a 



INTRODUCTIOX BY THE AUTHOR. 9 

Kansan could repair to some fragrant heath, amid the golden close 
of day, and awaken in the mind a train of pleasing thoughts by simply 
repeating the words, "The Land of Sun and Song." 'Tis said that 
"association begets sympathy." Well, perhaps this is the reason the 
writer has learned to love those words. Be it so; still, I was the best 
part of a year pondering on an appropriate title for my poem. xA.nd it 
has been to me no slight source of uneasiness lest some aspirant of song 
should get a " Government patent" on the same words before I should 
attempt to do so; for there are a number of "poetical geniuses" in the 
State, very gifted, and it seemed to me that some of these would recog- 
nize the appropriateness of the words for a Kansas poem, and get them 
into the "Copyright Office," at Washington, ahead of me. Had this 
been done it would have dispossessed me of the pleasing sensations 
derived from the consciousness of having selected the only words in 
the English language expressive of the two prominent features of this 
Kansas country, namely, stin and song; for Italy never had milder 
suns nor Germany sweeter daughters of song. Had I thus been de- 
prived of the use of the title to the poem, it is doubtful if the world had 
ever seen a line of these cantos, for I am a firm believer in the " eter- 
nal fitness of things." Whatever critics may say about the defects of 
the poem, still I have the advantage of them in knowing that they can 
throw no poisoned dart at my bosom for having selected an inappropri- 
ate title for this child of my Muses. Were the writer as well assured 
of the literary life of the poem as he is that the title is the most befitting 
that could have been chosen, he would end this introduction here, and 
go out this beautiful sunshiny day to listen to a Kansas lady's song. 

Should there be any of the posterity of Moore's " Great Chamber- 
lain" living, and they inclined to comment, "Fadladeen" like, on 
" this flimsy manufacture of the brain," I beg them to remember that their 
great ancestor and arch critic of that imperishable work of genius is 
dead, and that the poem which he strove so very industriously to de- 



I O IXTI^^ on L T TIOX B V THE A UTHOR. 

molish is still living, and bids fair to become the grandest "Oriental 
Romance" of that or any other age. 

Had the knowing Jeffries of the world's literary contests guessed 
right once in twenty times as to the life of a great poem, I would get 
my diamond-tipped pen ground down so that another pointed word 
would never fall from it in their direction. But they are such egre- 
giously mistaken guessers, as proven by the history of literature, that I 
delight in touching them up once in a while on their record of wrong 
predictions. I feel perfectly friendly toward them, but wouldn't give a 
farthing for their consolidated information as to the future fate of any 
work of art. 

Shakespeare is immeasurably greater, in the world's estimation, than 
when he was at the height of his zenith as the " illiterate lion of Lon- 
don." And so it is with scores of others as little thought of during their 
lives. As my gifted and illustrious namesake, Thomas Campbell, has 
well said, " 'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view." Ah I What 
wouldn't we give to have them back on earth again? But who ever 
heard of a very extravagant sum being offered for the resurrection of a 
Jeffrey, or any of his class, to the stations which they occupied before 
the god of the lower world mercifully relieved the earth of their pres- 
ence. 

The mission of a poet is love to man, love to liberty, love to God ; 
that of a critic is hatred to human happiness, hatred to hope's aspirings, 
hatred to heaven. 

If the reader is not prepared to believe all that the poem predicts in 
the last canto respecting the future of Kansas, please to remem])er that 
the "angel with the scroll" is responsible for the information instead 
of the writer; because he simply transcribed the language of the scroll 
to these pages as he read it at the time. For the truthfulness of this 
statement, he would most respectfully direct the reader's attention to 
the quotation marks inclosing the predictions. 



INTRODUCTION B V THE A UTHOR. I I 

If, however, any one is inclined to hold the author personally respon- 
sible for the great things of "The Vision," he proposes to meet the 
issue squarely, and point to the parchment records and printing presses 
of earth as an evidence that progression is the watchword of the ages. 
Yes, reader, the whole poem is his; and the author would that you and 
he might return to note the improvements in '^ The Land of Sun and 
Song" in the far future time of the poem's concluding predictions. 

Just think, for a moment, of the age of this young State, and com- 
pare her greatness to that of Plymouth's first peopling, and the odds to-day 
is vastly in our favor in many respects. If, then, Kansas has become 
so renowned in her swaddling clothes, what heights of fame will she not 
have reached when she steps forth on to the stage of existence, arrayed 
in her silks and laces,* a full-grown lady ? 

According to tradition, the gods of ancient mythology became " enam- 
ored of the daughters of men," and left their stations in the skies for 
the loves and mishaps of mortals. If this be true, I wouldn't greatly 
wonder at hearing of the celebration of celestial nuptials (when the 
Kansas Goddess has performed her mission on earth) with the brightest 
being of the spheres. 

As to the love of us mortals for this fair Goddess, there isn't one of 
us but is bewitched with her beauty. And the strange part of it all is, 
no matter where we go, we never see another who touches the fount of 
affection as she has done. The writer does not now remember to have 
ever heard a son of Kansas, aged or youthful, on her soil or elsewhere, 
utter a disrespectful sentiment of her. On the contrary, he has not in- 
frequently listened to the most eulogistic praises of her charms that 
ever fell from the lips of mortal. Such always have a fair word for 
Kansas, no matter in what part of earth they are found. 

Now, this being the case, reader, do you think it strange that the 
writer, who has no lady to love, should become enamored of the Kan- 
sas Goddess, and pen a poetic sentiment to her memory ? If you do, 



I 2 IXTR OD I XTIOX B V THE A UTHOR. 

the writer does not; Ijecause those poetical geniuses are sure to be say- 
ing tine things about some one. It is more than half of their living, 
and most of their life, the love lispings of poets. 

A word to the public ere the author bids this, his fourth poetical 
publication, adieu. It was his original design that this tribute should 
appear in a volume unsupported by any other of his poetical pro- 
ductions, and to be electrotyped by a Kansas publishing house. Hence 
it is so given to the public, and must stand or fall by its own vigor and 
vitality. 

The kindly reception of the author's poetic writings, as well as the 
gi"Owing demand therefor, might lead him to announce the advent of 
this, his latest production, with a bolder stroke of the pen than char- 
acterizes this prefatory sketch, but he remembers that modesty was an 
attribute of the greatest poets whose names grace the annals of history. 

This introduction must close. Go, fair child of my Muses, seek thy 

fortune in the literary world. 

J. P. C. 
Abilene, Kansas, April 3, 1888. 



CONTENTS. 



canto i. page. 

The KL\nsas Goddess, 17 

CAXTO II. 

A Pen Picture of a K.\xsas Home, ... 49 

caxto iii. 
The ^^Iooxlight Lea, 87, 

CAXTO IV. 

A Realm of Romaxce, 117 

CAXTO V. 

Loves axd Larks of the State, . . . -153 

CAXTO VI. 

Ax Edex Fairer thax that of Old, . . .189 

canto vii. 
The Visiox, 221 



The Land of Sun and Song. 



A POEM 



IN SEVEN CANTOS. 



THE KANSAS GODDESS 



CANTO FIRST. 



THE KANSAS GODDESS. 



I. 

Come ye heavenly muses, all divine, 
Come aid my measure, aid m^y rhyme; 
Lightly flit about my bower to-day — 
I fain would pen a deathless lay; 
For The Kansas Goddess is my theme, 
More radiant than the morning beam — 
See she deftly trips above the dews 
With her gilt and golden shoes. 
What tho' she be of tender years 
She is more wise than all her peers, 
Beckoning with an outstretched hand 
A willing welcome to all the land. 

11. 

She bears a banner all glowing bright, 
With letters thereon of living light, 
That the balmy air doth kiss so kind ; 
Surely 'tis the dawning day of mind. 
For every reform that's known to man 
Moves marching with her in the van ; 
While all the world doth gazing wonder 
At such conquest with no cannon's thunder. 



20 THE LAXD OF SUX AXD SOXG. 

Xo treason traitor, linked with guile, 

May gain from her a friendly smile; 

Honest worth she seeks and woos 

As the immortal pathway she pursues; 

Her stand not far hence to take, 

In the front rank of this nation great; 

For a million and a half of souls 

Xow wend with her as she strolls 

Thro' the first third of a century 

Since donning the crown of Stateship free. 

III. 

Hail, thou heavenly Goddess, hail ! 
I, your adopted son, bid you hail; 
For, like a generous queen, to-day 
You are beloved by many millions, ay. 
And sit enthroned on a golden throne 
Erected by your hands and our own ; 
In the times of plenty, famine, pain. 
When Quantrell rode the Lawrence plain. 
And John Brown's brave-born soul. 
Bleeding, bruised, found an immortal goal, 
Forever to live in heaven and on earth 
While sons of men have life and birth. 

IV. 

Angel of the morning, thou hast seen 
Boundless prairies, tenantless and green ; 



THE KANSAS GODDESS. 21 

The wild and wicked red man, in your walks, 
Disturbing first settlers and their flocks — 
Scalping, killing, plundering, as they rode 
Over the broken land, just newly sowed; 
Passing the torch from house to house. 
Burning wife, child, soldier in his blouse — 
The very same blue blouse he wore 
When fighting Rebels on a Southern shore. 

V. 

In those early days 'twas hard for thee 
To behold such sights of fiendish deviltry. 
With many a lonely-looking ^^ dug-out" 
Turned to a grave along the Indian route; 
To behold, many a noble-hearted man, 
Many a gentle, kindly-minded woman. 
Many a bright-eyed, prattling babe. 
Perish in the terrible Indian raid. 
Ah, yes, and many a village set aflame 
By ruthless raider, too foul to name; 
Worse than fiend of the mad-house bad, 
Or outcast, degraded, Avandering pad. 
And dare-devil ^^ Texas ranger" there, 
Reckless riding, defiant as Despair. 

VI. 

Such scenes passed thine averted view — 
Emigrants coming, others going, too; 



22 THE LAXD OF SUX AXD SOXG. 

Restless as waves of time that roll 
On the future veiled and hidden shoal; 
Soldiers, sailors, out of service coming, 
Hunters, trappers, traders, hither running; 
Foreigners from distant nations, also. 
Both good and bad, joined in the flow; 
Ever pouring their restless, roving tide 
Into thy sunny borders, broad and wide. 
Thou hast seen villages spring up in a day 
And burn at night by the torch's ray; 
Pilfering, pillaging, every ritual's right 
Hath passed before thy queenly sight. 

VII. 

The *^ dug-out" and the ''Bender den" 
Became familiar to thy youthful ken; 
Lecompton, Osawatomie, the Rebel raid. 
Held a place in the great parade; 
The war widow with her little sons, 
And the dark-robed wandering nuns; 
The drought, tlie gopher, the grasshopper. 
The chinch bug and the weevil cropper; 
The burning wind, the cyclone, blizzard. 
The saint, the prophet and the wizard. 

VIII. 

Thou hast seen such come and go. 
The dark cloud and tlie golden bow: 



THE KAXSAS GODDESS. 23 

The cereal harvests, rich with wealth, 
The life-giving breeze of health; 
And the population tide that runs 
From other realms, from other suns, 
Coming with willing hearts and hands 
To till and keep these Eden lands; 
To build here a monument of fame 
To humanity and King Immanuel's name; 
No word of its achievements sublime, 
Engraven with artistic touch divine. 
Shall ever dim or die in the ray 
That wafts the millions on their way; 
Progressive way to immortal things 
Where Mystery her mantle down flings: 
This queenly State of all the cluster. 
Befriended by Lincoln and by Custer, 
Shall majestic, onward marching, go. 
As the future, unfolding movements flow. 

IX. 

Fair Goddess of our sunny realm. 
True men thou hast placed at the helm 
Of this wonderous ship of state. 
Who have aided in making us so great: 
Governors Crawford, Anthony, St. John, 
To these, and other leaders, belong 
The brightest page of eternal fame. 
On which to write each deathless name; 



24 THE LAND OF SUN AND SONG. 

Followed by Ingalls, Anderson and Plumb, 
And other great men still to come. 

X. 

Here churches grace each village green, 
A school house upon each section seen; 
Farm cottages with rare rural groves . 
Greet the traveller as round he roves — 
In this our day of advancement free, 
The marvel of those who come to see, 
Is the wonderful development here 
Which doth upon every hand appear. 
^' Sunny Kansas" is a greatly favored State, 
Favored by some mystic spell of Fate; 
Envied by each of her royal sisters some, 
And by tourists, as the soul's elysium; 
Envied by the oppressed of other lands 
As the mart where manhood equal stands. 
In the scale of upright, honest worth, 
Regardless of rank, condition, birth. 

XI. 

Fair Goddess, thy realm has grown to be 
A loved land of the ^^free press, free;" 
Here more newspapers of standard high 
Are published, both daily and weekly, by 
The energetic editors of these plains. 
Men of liberal, intellectual brains, 



THE KANSAS GODDESS. 25 

Than in any other reahii or given space 
Peopled by a like number of the race; 
And are read by those whom they reach 
For the golden sentiments they teach. 

XII. 

Here a man behind the breaking plow 
Can talk to you on any subject now; 
School boy, with books, upon the road. 
On any theme that teacher ever showed; 
Here young men of mirthful, manly mold 
Are of more value than mines of gold; 
As for the young ladies of our State, 
Reader, I pray you yet a little wait. 
Until my Muse takes a higher flight, 
And my poetic vision grows more bright; 
For this is a theme demanding aid, 
Compared with which all others fade 
That occupy the thoughts of men below. 
Reader, I speak whereof I truly know — ■ 
To dilate upon their beauty, kisses, too. 
One should drink of that ethereal dew. 
Nightly brought by radiant genii hands, 
In golden urns, from far, celestial lands. 
With transit rapid as a shooting star. 
In the love god, Cupid's, glowing car. 



26 THE LAXD OF SL'X AXD SOXG. 

XIII. 

Gentle reader, wait till once again 
A delicious draught warms this weary brain. 
And my forward-flowing, freighted pen 
Touches this theme and subject: when 
Nymphs and naiads dance upon the lea, 
And human angels waltz about in glee, 
Mayhap, some fleet-winged form of love 
To woo back to the bosom, from above; 
Then of the beauty of the Kansas belle 
My rambling pen may something tell. 

XIV. 

Angel of thirty-eight empires crowned. 
Here happiness doth everywhere aboimd: 
Few dens of vice, where wicked men 
Make culprits for the guarded pen; 
'Tis known our temperance statutes now 
Work like magic — this drunkards all allow; 
Order, morality, grace and Christian love 
Dwell together, commended by those above. 

XV. 

Railroads, with their bands of steel. 
To our doorways bring a welcome weal; 
In the varied exchanges of the world. 
Where the win2:s of Traffic are unfurled, 



THE KAXSAS GODDESS. 2J 

We gain the very highest market rate 
For our products of any other State; 
And never an exposition has been held 
But our praise hath foremost swelled; 
The blue ribbon ever has been ours, 
Given with speeches and wreathed flowers; 
And never has been heard a wordy jar 
To tell the place of Kansas from afar; 
Where in the constellation of the skies 
Our ''Ad Astera'' should meet the eyes. 

XVI. 

Oh I favored Goddess of a favored land, 
Balmy breezes thy cheek hath fanned, 
More mild than the airs of eventide, 
Wafted o'er the hills of Italy wide. 
Or yonder, amid the verdant Cuban isles, 
AVhere continual summer ever smiles. 
Imagination never knew a fairer clime 
In which to musing dream of the divine, 
Than our Kansas mellow Autumn days, 
^lild as the speech of child that prays, 
Asking from its cozy little trundle-bed 
God's evening blessing on its head; 
While the gentle, loving mother folds 
Coverlets about the image of two souls; 
And her kindly, tender blessing gives 
To the miniature of herself that lives. 



28 THE LAXD OF SUX AXD SQXG. 

By the mystery and mercy of heaven 
Through years, months, week days seven. 

XVII. 
This were a clime for the poet's muse; 
For Romance, with her silver' d shoes, 
And Art, the mother of Refinement fair, 
May here wend about with never a care; 
Like dreamer in somnambulistic reverie, 
Hastened hence beyond the land and sea 
By the water spirit's mystic spells, 
To a realm where Summer always dwells ; 
To hold sweet converse, sainted, celestial. 
Away from its earth-born tenant a spell. 

XVIII. 
Here Sculptor, with wreath of roses, 
May nod and nap on the Kansas posies, 
Whose petals exhale the dews di^•ine 
That float and fall within this clime; 
Here History, with her generous hand. 
Casts germs of knowledge o'er the land, 
Whose fallow soil yieldeth a dozen fold 
Fairer fruits than apple trees of gold; 
And as for central location, we to-day, 
Over our sisters, hold supremest sway. 

XIX. 
Philosophy here may theorizing tell 

Where missing souls of mortals dwell; 



THE KAXSAS GODDESS. 29 

Majestic Reason, monarch like, divine, 
May build herself a costly castle shrine, 
To defend, against the will of Fate, 
Her dogmas, like any royal ruler great, 
Till death-doomed she meets the goal. 
And tenets desert her timid soul. 
Here, on every rood and foot of land. 
From Colorado to the Missouri strand. 
Evidence of one great, omnipotent God 
Is visible all along the surface sod; 
The same below the crust of earth, 
x\nd in the air, where life has birth. 

XX. 

Man may not wander without a creed, 
Nor friendless in this sunny mead; 
For something in the light, mild air 
Draws heart to heart, with tender care; 
Brothers and sisters in these lands 
Together dwell, in groups and bands; 
Here husband and wife may have a home, 
Independent of potentate or throne; 
And the outcast of every city, too, 
May find work plenty here to do. 
Upon our far, wide-rolling plains. 
With compensation suited to his pains. 



30 THE LAXD OF SCW AXD SONG. 

XXT. 

None need hungry turn from any door ; 
The inmates urge you to *'take more:" 
Here our generous people seem to live 
As if it were a greater joy to give, 
According to the blessed Bible plan, 
Than overreach or rob a fellow man — • 
Like some penurious, pinching slave, 
Gloating over his ingots in a cave. 
Heaving many a curst, covetous sigh. 
While penury stalks the street to die. 

XXII. 

Ah! thou misguided, miserly-minded man, 
Thou'rt thwarting God's eternal plan. 
That thou dost not let tliy hoarded gold 
Over these prairies Avide be rolled; 
Tliou couldst not lose a copper here 
Witli faithful work and honest cheer; 
For he wlio tills our fertile soil 
Hath golden harvests for his toil. 
The single talent the Redeemer gave 
Grows boundless as the ocean wave. 
Nurtured in our rich, alkivial clay — 
Come dig and delve with short delay; 
For here but a farthing, rightly sown, 
Ofttimes changes to a golden throne, 



THE KANSAS GODDESS. 3 I 

Whose occupant is of far more worth 
Than he who gains renown by birth. 

XXIII. 
Star-eyed Science, with tireless wings, 
Skyward soaring, of iiiiprovement sings ; 
Here Wisdom, with her witchery wand, 
llirows a glamour over lake and land ; 
Here Hymen wends with two and. two — 
Genius finds much honest work to do; 
While Affection, with her artless speech, 
Lessons of kindness doth daily teach; 
Hope, that herald heavenly of the morn, 
Twin sister of fair-faced Fancy born. 
When from the darkened night of mind 
God wakened the first of human kind, 
Points each of us to a future here 
With a faith that falters not with fear; 
No son or daughter of these prairies grand 
Ever deserted them for another land, 
AVithout again backward bending their way 
When the illusion had once passed away. 

XXIV. 

Independent Fortune, in her better days. 
Here superb and queenly walks and strays, 
Along simlit laneways, ranging wide, 
With a golden girdle at each side; 



32 THE LAXD OF SCZV AXD SOXG. 

Giving to worthy Labor an ample meed — 
A respite from the city's filthy greed; 
Memory, with look of rearward vision, 
In this fair realm is all precision; 
SUmiber never frets the night away, 
Holding the Spirit of Peace at bay; 
While Mercy, all mindful of her creed. 
The tramping stranger here doth feed. 

XXV. 

Penury, pursuing her lone, barren path, 
Reaching the verdure here doth laugh. 
For 'tis much like a carpeted street. 
Softly soothing to the weary feet; 
And Health reanimates with the breeze 
That fragrant sweeps across the leas; 
Truth her fair pinions here may plume, 
While Falsehood hides within the gloom; 
Freedom, that unrestricted child of time, 
A ready welcome is given in this clime ; 
Murder and Rapine, Wickedness and Woe. 
Since the sin shops were forced to go, 
Have given the four fair sisters place — 
Happiness, Harmony, Peace and Grace. 

XXVI. 

The Kansas children, this I do opine. 
Approach somewhat nearer the divine 



THE KANSAS GODDESS. 33 

Than offspring of England's Queen; 
This may be fancy or a foolish dream, 
Long and closely fondled to my heart. 
Aided by nymph and naiad in this mart, 
Who often scatter life's prizes round 
Like grains of gold upon the ground, 
When all the world doth sleeping rest. 
And the sentinels of eternity blest 
Are waiting their watch in the sky 
For queenly Aurora to come winging by. 

XXVIT. 

Fair Goddess of mine adopted home, 
Oft I love to wander forth alone. 
Under the calm and slumberous night; 
Then my Muse takes a higher flight. 
Upborne to a realm more richly rare. 
Of which this duplicates some share; 
Only wanting the streams that flow 
Through Aidenn lands with gleams aglow, 
Past pearly gates and amaranth bowers; 
But ere long such scenes may be ours — 
Would be ours if our advertising line 
. Were connected with that far-ofl" clime ; 
For could they of yonder paradise 
Read our racy catalogues fair and nice, 
Frequently gotten out by real-estate men. 
Oftentimes Fve said, and say again. 



34 THE LAXD OF SUX AXD SOXG. 

Here a second Eden would be begun 
Within this reahii of rest and sun. 
Where never a reptile with venomed art 
Sinful knowledge could again impart. 

XXVIII. 
What an envied place of social cheer 
For Love's Kingdom in this sphere! 
What a place for Cupid's fairy bands 
Their pranks to play upon these strands ! 
Here might be erected a Hymen throne 
That all the world would worship, own ! 
E'en I myself might linger at its stile, 
Permitting the ladies fair on me to smile I 
For divided is my throbbing heart, you see^ 
Between them and the naiads of the lea. 

XXIX. 

Here lovers roam at the noontide hour 
Unrestricted by bramble, bush or bower; 
Without wending into a watery rill 
The passion divine iTi them to kill; 
And amid the mild night-tide time, 
'Oly own dear duck, my darling, mine,'^ 
May be heard on every wafted wind — 
This is true, or I've never sinned; 



THE KAXSAS GODDESS. 35 

And I've held some important part 
In the traffic — the loves of the heart. 

XXX. 

The genial airs within this clime 
Kindle love's bright fires divine, 
Into an abiding intensity of flame; 
For unrestricted they sweep the plain, 
With never an obstacle here to break 
The witchery of the wild wind's wake. 
It can kiss the maiden's cheek in glee 
Or dismal moan about the river lea, 
Just as the spell may possess it. 
The freak, the frolic or the fit. 

XXXL 

Fair Quiet, I have found thee here. 
And Innocence, thy twin sister dear; 
Mistaken long, I sought you wide. 
O'er many a walk, on many a tide; 
In the throng, the busy city's din, 
^Mingling amid wealth, poverty and sin ; 
Where oft such weary round I rued 
And pined for some delicious solitude. 
Which lay beyond the jarring throng. 
Where I wending mused full long; 



^6 THE LAND OF SUN AND SONG. 

In the morning time of happy youth, 
When credulous I took all for truth. 



XXXII. 

Here the mind in pleasure's dress 
May glean and grow without distress, 
While adown the sky a warming sun 
Does through our fragrant zodiac run ; 
Here each little industrious bee 
Is mindful of its time as well as we, 
Culling sweets in the golden hours 
From the scented and odorous flowers; 
Here the night-hawk dips and sings, 
Spreading for longer flight its wings; 
Upward like a soul to heaven going. 
Radiant on the folds of air aglowing. 

XXXIII. 

The East may boast, and still provide 
To royal life the ornaments of pride; 
But give me this famed Western field 
To furnish forth a staff and shield; 
Here brighter, purer reflections shine. 
From the glorious orb of day divine, 
Than ever fall on the city's glooms. 
Its parks, its palaces, or its tombs — 



THE KANSAS GODDESS. 37 

'Tis a mighty task, as well you know, 
To detail each comfort here below; 
To bespeak the benefits of this clime, 
In proper meter and finished rhyme. 

XXXIV. 
At early morn, ere the lark is up, 
Sweet waters of a silvered spring I sup, 
And pausing meditate by the river rill. 
Without the city limit lone and still. 
At such times the breath of morn, 
And the mystic rustling of the corn, 
Bring to my soul's enchanted sight 
Blisses of the clime of which I write; 
And sets my being wonderfully ajar 
Viewing the misty lighted lands afar. 
The amber-tipped and tmseled dew 
Brought by Night's fingers into view. 

XXXV. 

Beloved Goddess, in intellect sound. 
Thou art the foremost to be found; 
Every reform that is known to man 
Hath a place in thine advancing van — 
Sweet Liberty here was first decreed 
At quite a costly and bitter meed; 
The Brotherhood of Man had birth 
In this fond corner of the earth ; 



38 THE LAXD OF SIX A XD SOXG. 

Here Religion with her heavenly zeal 
Brings to our liomes a happy weal. 

XXXVI. 
Temperance — angel of life and love — 
Named and christened by God above. 
May be seen in every city of our State 
And rural walk wliere wanderers wait. 
Incitinof to Industrv's honest toil — 
Not like Intemperance to murder, broil, 
A lack of self-respect and law, 
Which holds a people much in awe; 
Here sober-minded men are all supreme 
And dnmkenness quite seldom seen — 
Who'd go back to the beggar's den. 
AVhere 2rin des^raded our fellow-men? 
AVhere Famine lurked about the hearth 
Now Toy and Plenty are heard to laugh, 

XXXVII. 
Ye States that hold no temperance line 
About barrels, kegs and bottled wine, 
Ye little realize what it is ye miss 
As compared with the peace of this; 
Here there are no interchanging blows, 
Xo drunkard staggers on your toes, 
Xo dread commotions caused by rum; 
Here red-handed riot is silent, mum; 



THE KANSAS GODDESS. 39 

And Industry to her labor daily hies, 
The love god lisps divinest sighs — 
Oh ! I would that every one might see 
The happy homes of our people free. 

XXXVIII. 
Here female suffrage we have tried — 
The ladies vote with becoming pride; 
Bringing an atmosphere about the polls 
That's supremely blissful to our souls; 
Whether the voting be by day or night 
The ladies are sure to vote aright; 
We've learned that in them is design, 
Equally adjusted with yours and mine. 
The great God gave them work to do 
With intellects of quite as wide a view 
As any that creation's lords control. 
With a much more finely-fibered soul. 

XXXIX. 

We lead all others, this I may aver ; 
One of our cities has a Mayoress Salter, 
And a very worthy council to her aid 
Who wear gowns upon street parade; 
And run the government just as well 
As men, who cut a larger, loftier swell, 
Dressed in pants, and coats, and plumes 
Nodding to the zephyrs and the blooms. 



40 THE LAXD OF SCX AXD SOXG. 

When Governor or great officials come, 
Announced by the band, the fife, the drum. 

XL. 

For other reforms yet upon the list 
Our progressive people still insist; 
They, too, shortly in line will be 
Flaunted on our floating banner free; 
For it is ours many a task to set, 
Many a brightly fair example yet, 
That other States and nations too 
Alay some profit gain b}' what we do ; 
For we're moving in the lead of all 
That's best upon this floating ball. 

XLI. 

And 'tis something one might say 
To be ideal of such a State to-day ; 
To be crowned its Goddess all supreme. 
To be its fair and worshipped queen; 
To be accorded honors golden, great, 
Xot the least of the thirty-eight — 
Xot the least — ah, thou mischief Muse, 
Make not my pen this theme abuse; 
For well thou knowest I would write 
Of a region whose supernal light. 
Is more fair than all the lovely land 
Eastward running to the Atlantic strand, 



THE KANSAS GODDESS. 41 

Or westward to the far Pacific slope. 
Where sets the star of empire's liope. 

XLII. 

Many a kindly word has been said 
Of thy sisters upon grand parade, 
At both State and national jubilee 
When great orators grew convivially; 
And Aspiration spread her shining wings 
Heavenward soaring to supremer things; 
But on such occasions, ere they close, 
Thy praise, both by friends and foes, 
Has been spoken prophetically divine. 
Since thou hast a place within the line 
That links this grand continent free. 
Both to heaven and kind humanity. 

XLIII. 
Ere my tongue weary of thy praise 
Some charm of witchery I'll raise; 
Whose enchanting allurements strange 
Shall cast a glamour as I range 
These fair walks in museful mood. 
Searching for sweet, nnaginative food ; 
Hoping to restore this enervated frame, 
Warmed by the divinely-lighted flame; 
Whose blest breathings in this clime 
Make white and pure the soul's shrine; 



42 THE LAXD OF SUX AXD SOXG. 

For these Kansas airs mild and free 
Are like zephyrs blown from eternity. 

XLIV. 

The very winds will give one song, 
"The smis will move its sweep along; 
Here Lima's mildly mellow light 
Ofttimes puts me in mood to write; 
The stars glint and gleam so silently 
AVith mystic fascination influence me; 
Bringing to soul-sight the better scenes 
We often see amid their myriad gleams/ 
AVhen angels fill the heavenly dome, 
With their sweet song of ^'Welcome Home* 
To the bri2:ht home that lies so far 
Beyond the verge of outmost star, 
That wanderer wanting the chart divine 
May never walk its far winding line. 

XLV. 
Fair Goddess, as the years onward pass, 
Of thy image in the nation's glass 
The lordly rulers more notice take, 
And a more admiring bow doth make; 
As thy gracefully intellectual form 
Flashes like sunshine amid the storm. 
Of much wordv and wanderinsr debate 
In council halls of our nation great, 



THE KANSAS GODDESS, 43 

While we're drifting listlessly along 
To the worlds of darkness and of dawn, 
Which lie ranging so very wide apart 
On the universe's mystic chart. 

XLVI. 

Here much that's cheering for a home 
Beckons to all wanderers as they roam, 
To anchor their wayward, veering barks 
Within this land of loves and larks; 
For here the seasons in their round, 
Are brighter than elsewhere may be found; 
Gentle Spring with her blissful days 
Comes breathing odors as she strays, 
And Summer so soothing to the soul 
Gives us zephyrs from the southern pole, 
Deliciously cooling to the outer man. 
As motion of a self-adjusting fan; 
Autumn, with her soft and silvery gleam. 
On the golden harvests here doth beam; 
Wliile Winter, with her robes loosely worn, 
Never is seen with languid look forlorn — 
No pinching blasts make blue the air. 
Or shorten the ladened larder's fare. 
By long-continued rompings of unrest. 
In this delightful Garden of the West. 



44 THE LAXD OF SLW AXD SOXG. 

XLVII. 
Sunshine is a seraph here more bright 
Than doth at other stations e'er ahs^ht ; 
And her wings of beautiful amber hue 
Are never bedabbled with the dew, 
Which falls full ample o'er the sod, 
But seldom arises turning into fog; 
Our rains, as they touch the earth. 
Impart to it a kind of second birth. 
Bringing bud and bloom into sight 
In the course of a day and night; 
Song, sweet mistress of all souls, 
The wide breadth of our border strolls. 
Gently greeting the laboring swain 
With the cadence of her cheering strain, 

XLVIIL 
Fair Goddess, all that earth affords. 
From her mines, her fields, her hoards, 
Thou art royal mistress of to-day, 
With prospect's bright -beaming ray 
Presaging the unfoldings of our State, 
Which in few years has grown so great. 
That all the populous globe around 
Has heard very much praise and sound 
Of this wonderously congenial clime, 
Inhabited by manhood's youthful prime. 



THE KAXSAS GODDESS, 45 

Which can but make a mark in life 
Amid the world's bustling strife; 
For the soil, the smi, the rain, the dew, 
Bring whate'er is sown right into view, 
Cheering the husbandman's industrious care 
With remunerating harvests everywhere. 
Which once acquired within these fields 
A double interest every dollar yields. 

XLIX. 

The farmer whistles turning of the glebe — 
Here the swine on anything will feed; 
The dairymaid, with pans and churns. 
As she works sweet contentment learns; 
The worthy wife, at the spinning wheel, 
A kind of satisfying pride doth feel. 
Thou Goddess ideal of my poetic dream, 
Our people crown thee more than queen; 
More than member of the royal line. 
We hold thee in reverence all divine; 
Our adoration through the day runs, 
And mid the seasons' returning suns. 

L. 

Like children of one common fold. 

To thee, our foster mother, now we hold. 

And no spell of Fate's dark sway 

Can take thy fascination from us away; 



46 THE LAXD OF SUX AXD SOXG. 

For in the daily round of common toil 
We've grown to love thee, breaking soil. 
Building churches, school houses, homes, 
Villages, cities, colleges and domes; 
Through drouth, plenty, famine, pain. 
And the many woes I well might name; 
Till at this writing we've come to be 
A people of stature large and free. 

LI. 

These reasons, and many myriads more. 
Bind us, tie us, to thy loved shore; 
Eastward, where Missouri's waters roll, 
With a view sublime upon the soul, 
And westward, along the Colorado lines, 
Where'er the sun on Kansas shines, 
Thine enchantments hold their spells. 
And Contentment with Prosperity dwells — 
]^Iore lovingly than the day is long 
In this blest land of sun and song. 
Fair Goddess, my leave for a time I take 
Of this canto, for another canto's sake; 
But as I write, love shall link thee still, 
To mv soul, breast, brain and will. 



A PEN PICTURE OF A KANSAS HOME 



CANTO SECOND. 



A PEN PICTURE OF A KANSAS HOME, 



I. 

Ho! what's yon mist in the distance, 
Moving Hke a cloud in the expanse? 
There, hold your hand to shade the sun ! 
A new era of the world's now begun; 
Westward the Empire Star takes its way — 
Glorious, grand and bright that ray — 
So wonderous bright that all mankind 
Shall feel the power of awakening mind. 
As our Goddess sits enthroned supreme, 
Of the Western world its royal queen. 

II. 
See ! yon mist approaches nearer now, 
Like a ship on the prairie ; somehow, 
It moves, that far-off speck of light. 
Veering through the morning bright, 
Nearer, nearer, and yet nearer still; 
Nearer it wends, like a widening rill. 
Ah! 'tis an emigrant wagon, borne along, 
With a cow, an ox, a bell's ''ding-dong." 
Slow its movement as the stride of Time, 

(51) 



52 THE LAXD OF SIX AXD SOXG. 

Rolls the wagon into an unknown clime. 
Two human beings its only occupants — 
They walk, each tired animal pants; 
But the man 's a man of manly nene, 
The wife from dut}- will not swene: 
These two alone, John and Dora Gales, 
Are the first Bickinson Coimt\" hails. 

III. 

The time is thirty-three years ago, 
Mayhap more hath passed, I do not know; 
Time is not the essential of my tale; 
A\Tiat, though their names and ages fail, 
T "r sketch, I trust, may be true to life. 
Of this young man and his devoted wife. 
He's hardly past twenty summers now; 
She — scarce nineteen years, we may aUow, 
Have set their signet seal of time 
Upon her make-up, mortal and di\*ine. 

IV. 

She was reared in a luxurious home, 
AVhere wealth, grandeur, gaiety were known — 
Some fifteen miles from New York city, 
AATiere Knickerbocker wTOte so witty; 
He was bom and bred in its lower walks. 
Where to rise each honest effort mocks; 



J PEN PICTURE OF A KANSAS HOME. 5 3 

Time's chronicle tells, some two years 
Since, their hopes, hearts and fears 
Were united in the holy bond of love, 
By sanction divine, in heaven above; 
But her parents their approval withheld. 
While a sense of pride his bosom swelled. 

V. 

They began life in an humble way. 
On a rented farm that wouldn't pay, 
Not very far from the mansion grand 
Of her father, mother, brother, band. 
He worked with will the fields alone. 
She cooked, scrubbed, and kept the home 
For about a year and a half or so; 
When John tired of the hindmost row. 
And resolved, with his wife's consent. 
On a Western journey, with strong intent. 

VI. 

She hadn't much to live for there; 
To go West with him she would prepare. 
They yoked the cow and ox to a wagon, 
Cooking utensils, food, a bed to lie on, 
A little cash in their pockets, too. 
And they bade the rented place ^' adieu." 
Without a tear, sigh or faltered song, 
A blustering April day, just after dawn, 



5 4 THE LAXD OF SUX AXD SOXG, 

Westward through York State and Ohio, 
Indiana, Illinois, jMissouri, they go; 
And now 'tis near October the last, 
Thev o-reet this ^-'Sunnv Kansas" vast. 

VII. 
At Armstadt creek they halt for repose. 
Northward from Avhere the Smoky flows; 
About a mile in that beautiful green 
Where the belle of the prairie is seen; 
The cow and ox turned out to grass, 
John seeks a place their life to pass; 
While Dora cooks a simple kind of meal 
From a little piece of purchased veal; 
The dog, found upon the weary line, 
Was a clever, sportive, fleet canine; 
While the cat a peaceful purring kept. 
As to and fro on the seat she stept. 

VIII. 
Dora brings some water from the creek, 
Finding here and there a little stick. 
With which a hasty fire is made; 
Some ground coffee steeped, to aid 
Along their crudely frugal meal. 
For they need of stimulant did feel. 
An hour ended, Jolin returns to cheer 
His wife with opening prospects near: 



A PEN PICTURE OF A KANSAS HOME, 5 5 

''They would stay a day or two, to rest; 
Move north half a mile; it were best; 
And there they would begin a home, 
And some day own one of their own." 
'Twas thus John spake to Dora, then, 
At breakfast, near the hour of ten. 

IX. 

The simple meal was soon diminished; 
When they the scant repast had finished, 
And the frying pan and coffee pot, 
And other things they had brought, 
Were securely put within the box again. 
And the bedding spread upon the plain. 
To air in the light of the blest sun, 
They rested, their pilgrimage was done; 
And well content was each of them, 
Chatting beside the brooklet's hem. 
Although no other beings of their race 
Showed a foot mark 'round in any place. 
The clime was mild as a summer's day. 
The foliage held its fragrance, ay. 
For there scarce was any winter then 
That would drive the rabbit to its den, 
Or cause the beaver to cease work below. 
On the dam across the streamlet's flow. 



56 THE LAXD OF SUX AXD SOXG. 

X. 

The day went winging past them there. 
For the night-time they did prepare: 
'Twas quite a change to Dora Hamihon, 
But she bore it as few would have done, 
For love reigned supremely in her heart. 
And where that is it can play any part. 
John looked well to his rifle load — 
They'd passed some Indians on the road; 
And while they seemed friendly, kind, 
He always rested safer in his mind 
If no precautions were left undone, 
When the moon shone instead of the sun, 
Wendins; throus^h her silverv line 
In the silent hours of night sublime. 

XI. 
Tlie stray dog to them was a heritage, 
A hound bv nature thev named '-'Gao^e:" 
Large, strong, active, as a lion bold. 
Of wolf or Indian would take hold; 
And, while they soundly slept at night, 
In the covered wagon, away from sight. 
That faithful animal's snuffing nose 
Always scented the approach of foes. 
And never once failed to awaken John, 
At danger, by jumping the bed upon, 



A PEX PICTURE OF A KAXSAS HOME, 57 

Or when wolves lurked leering round, 
For many in those days did abound. 

XII. 
As the lark greeted them with song, 
They were found their duties among; 
John gathering wood for the fire, then, 
For he was the kindest hearted of men; 
And she, preparing the breakfast meal — 
For Dora the love of a wife did feel. 
The sun rose bright above the horizon. 
Cheering them that mild October morn. 
The cow and ox were grazing near, 
The bell had lost its tinkling queer, 
For John had taken it off the cow — 
Less danger from Indians, he did allow; 
And these two of the ruminating kind 
"Would by day or night each other find; 
For long time they'd worked together, 
In mud, in rain, and sunny weather. 

XIII. 
They ate breakfast on the ground, 
No more convenient furniture around. 
To the blonde, sweet Dora, it did seem 
Like a novel or a romantic dream ; 
To the more meditative, thoughtful John, 
'Twas the beginning of life's new dawn; 



58 THE LAXD OF SUX AXD SOXG. 

In the opening future he could see 
Prospect, hope and responsibility; 
But braver-born soul did not exist, 
To meet the down-falling of the mist, 
That sometimes gathered about his eyes 
"When cloud and storm obscured the skies; 
But as the day beamed forth the sun 
He fancied a new creation was begun, 
And that he and gentle Dora there. 
Chosen of the Lord the second pair, 
AVliere to culture and keep the ground, 
And, mayhap, bring other beings round. 

XIV. 
Dora's features, mild, expressive, were; 
Xo trace lines of thought or care 
Settled about an eye of liquid blue; 
Pretty mouth, and cunning features, too; 
Her form was graceful, somewhat tall. 
With a hand and foot dainty, small. 
John's broad, intellectual forehead 
Showed that he'd with judgment wed; 
His chin was massive in its mold. 
His whiskers were tinged with gold, 
Short and curly, about ruby lips; 
His brown eyes would the heart eclipse, 
Which beheld all there was to view. 
While wending the country through. 



A PEN PICTURE OF A KANSAS HOME. 59 

XV. 

Breakfast o'er, up the creek to work 
He goes, with spade, pick, axe and dirk, 
To begin the foundation of a home; 
He left Dora with the trusty dog alone. 
Knowing that within sight he'd be, 
And depending much on Gage, you see; 
And he left his loaded rifle there. 
In that brave little woman's care; 
Mild and gentle as Dora seemed. 
When aroused her whole nature beamed 
Forth in a resolute, expressive way, 
That held approaching foe at bay. 

XVI. 

She busied herself at the wagon stand, 
Milking, doing this and that, at hand; 
Sewing, patching, or mending clothes. 
Hour by hour the time speeding goes. 
Till five o'clock was on the stroke; 
Then John, again returning, spoke; 
With the voice of friendly cheer, 
AVhich quick allayed her every fear; 
The dog, more faithful than some men. 
Whined delight to see him back again. 
Somewhat he'd done, leveling the ground, 
He'd laid some blocks, convenient round, 



6o THE LAXD OF SUX AXD SOXG. 

Preparatory to rolling up the logs, 
From some hastily-constructed bobs, 
That John had, with thoughtful care, 
As requisite to assist him there, 
Made to bring, from down the creek, 
Los^s for cabin and chinkins: stick. 

XVII. 
Supper past, again the night is on ; 
Aurora's coming brings another dawn; 
Breakfast o'er, with the gathered things, 
Again they seem to have taken wings; 
For northward the wagon is moving now, 
With load, drawn by the ox and cow; 
They've reached the selected site, 
'Tis a location fair, sheltered, bright, 
On the west bank of Armstadt creek, 
Near some shade trees, growing thick, 
And quite a clear, crystal spring, 
Which was deemed a most welcome thing; 
Just west from where stands Abilene, 
Of Kansas cities the Prairie Queen. 

XVIII. 
Halting, they turned the cattle out. 
And busied themselves new duties about; 
The gathering twilight hour has come; 
Two meals allotted each dav 's their sum. 



A PEX PICTURE OF A KAXSAS HOME. 6 I 

In order to make the provisions last, 
That want may not compel a fast; 
iVlthough they've laid in a good supply 
Of flour, meat, meal, sugar, coffee, rye, 
To carry them the winter through, 
(Beside many things I'll not name to you,) 
Before leaving Leavenworth for the West, 
For they knew the coming winter's test, 
Ere thev mis^ht as^ain behold a store, 
Or border of habitation's shore, 
Would perplexing and wearisome be. 
Ere springtime, both to John and she. 

XIX. 
John each day on the cabin works, 
While Dora no domestic duty shirks; 
The cat purrs peaceful and demurely, 
The dog holds guard o'er all securely — 
Sometimes dozing through the day, 
In the night time holding sleep at bay; 
A kind of canine lord there did roam. 
About that first Dickinson county home, 

XX. 

Two weeks passed, and the cabin rose, 
By labor of ox, cow, manly blows, 
Some like the proportions of a home — 
'Tis true it had no cupola or dome; 



62 THE LAXD OF SUX AND SOXG. 

Roof well thatched with prairie grass, 
A door at south through which to pass, 
With a window at the east and west, 
Secured with what came handy, best; 
Two cozy rooms, with a door between. 
Filled the hope of John's ideal dream; 
As a work of art, it was far from pretty. 
But 'twas the first landmark of a city. 
Than which no fairer, finer, stands 
To-day in these broad, sunny lands. 

XXI. 

A fireplace on north of east room. 

With mud and sticks, rose toward the moon; 

A partition from side to side did run, 

A door between, and the job was done. ■ 

John then turned to putting up hay, 

For ox and cow, against a winter day. 

This done, he builded a kind of barn — 

Reader, don't call it exaggeration, yarn; 

Before the middle of December, stood 

At the door a pile of winter wood. 

Nearly as large as the cabin there. 

Corded and cut by John's skillful care; 

Besides, many other things he had done. 

Before the frost days of winter come. 

Which were some like an Eastern Fall, 

Short, mild and pleasant withal. 



J PEX PICTURE OF A KAXSAS HOME. 63 

XXII. 

As the winter days fled on, away, 
Several Indians round about did stray; 
What may have been their thought, 
Their motive, their wish, I know not 
But true it is John gave no oiTense, 
While them he hrmly wafted hence ; 
For he didn't care to friendly be. 
Lest they'd swarm about upon the lea. 
And by familiarity breed contempt. 
Or their envv. malice, rao:e, to vent ; 
But most of the Indian tribes away 
Had gone, south, to find a warmer day, 
As was their usual wont when the sky 
Presented a stormy aspect to the eye, 
And old Santa Claus' reindeers fleet 
More nimble prance upon their feet. 
As floating frosts in air they snuff, 
While distributing the children stuff. 

XXIII. 

Before the winter was half passed by, 
Sickly, pale, grew Dora's cheek and eye; 
And in her bed for many days she laid. 
Cared for by John's most attentive aid : 
Such medicine as was there at hand 
He gave ; the fevered cheek fanned ; 



64 THE LAXD OF SLW AXD SOXG. 

Ever faithful, watching night and noon, 
Fearing that death might call her soon; 
But the wind changing to the south, 
A better hue broke round her mouth ; 
Her wandering reason backward came. 
In three days she named John's name; 
In another week she sat up in bed. 
With a pillow to rest her weary head. 

XXIV. 

By January the middle, or thereabout, 
Once more she past the door without; 
Soon she became the cheer of John, 
With her gleeful laugh and familiar song. 
The winter provisions lasted well, 
For John shot game upon the fell. 
And set some traps the creek along. 
Till the spring's suns began to dawn; 
Then he yoked up the ox and cow. 
And began the prairie sod to plow, 
A quarter of a mile, this, or more, 
Straight west from the cabin door; 
It was somewhat new work for him. 
But he followed it with will and vim; 
He soon had sown some spring wheat. 
Planted corn rows, both fair and neat; 
Potatoes, turnips, pumpkins, of good seed. 
Were carefully placed away to breed. 



A PEN PICTURE OF A KANSAS HOME. 65 

XXV. 

About the house Dora busied herself, 
With some seeds from the cabin shelf; 
She tilled a little garden near, 
Which at evening John's good cheer 
Had plowed, after quitting the field; 
For rich the prospect of a savory yield, 
And two such workers as they were 
Would succeed in the world anywhere; 
John's fields looked prosperous, green — 
In the garden many a plant was seen; 
The sun, with its warm, reviving ray, 
The frequent rainfall and the dewy spray, 
Made the growing crop look thriving, fair. 
Meet reward for honest toil and care. 

XXVI. 

When June and its middle came along. 
Much brighter broke around the dawn; 
They heard, from a kind of trapper scout. 
Of a family eight miles or thereabout 
South, who had settled down to stay. 
And another twelve miles east, that day; 
As well as rumor that more were coming 
To Kansas, as the days around were running. 



66 THE LAXD OF Sl\Y AXD SOXG. 

XXVII. 

'Tis August the third, Dora is unwell, 
For weeks one might the sickness tell; 
Few hours of suffering — an angel babe 
Had come, the father, mother, to aid 
In keeping, blessing, cheering the home — 
Such babe as a king might wish to own; 
The first of Dickinson county fair, 
With blue eyes, no color to its hair, 
For tresses, as yet, it hadn't any; 
They would, but couldn't, name it Benny. 

XXVIII. 

Mrs. Smith, from the family south, 
John had called, direct byword of mouth; 
No telephones, in those early days. 
With which to speak their wants or ways; 
Six days past, between sun and sun. 
For Mrs. Smith he'd gone and come; 
Early next day she went walking o'er. 
From her own to her neighbor's door; 
Some eight miles it might have been. 
Such a walk was deemed short then. 
She left a grown-up daughter at home, 
Julia, who had a husband of her own; 



A FE.y PICTURE OF A AAXSAS HOME, 6/ 

Smith had gone a trip to Leavenworth, 
]^Iaking provision for a drouth or dearth, 
And was absent just eighteen days; 
She, no longer needed, homeward strays. 

XXIX. 

Two weeks passed; Dora is up, and hails 
Her little darling as Miss Ida Gales; 
And John is so much pleased that he 
Nothing save the little one can see. 
Ah ! well it was the corn was tended 
Ere that little one earthward wended 
From the fair shores of babyland. 
With darling, dimpled cheek and hand; 
For she turned the good man's head, 
With every little lisp she said; 
And Dora thought the great big world 
For the blessed baby only whirled. 

XXX. 

At work each day a double charm 
Caused her to keep the babe from harm. 
John had harvested the ripened wheat. 
Exchanging some for flour to eat. 
By sending to Leavenworth eight sacks. 
In payment, by Smith, of a friendship tax. 
To plow and put in some fall wheat. 
He deemed it proper and most meet; 



68 THE LAND OF SUN AND SONG. 

So then he left the babe with Dora, 
And plowed, and sowed, and worked away, 
Until many acres were in the ground. 
Then he viewed his hundred sixty round; 
The pre-emption papers had been sent away. 
And returned by stage, without delay; 
It was only a 'Miomestead,'' it is true, 
Eut in time he ^^ proved up," as many do; 
A homestead, to-day, one can hardly tell, 
From a farm gotten by a big heir-fell. 

XXXI. 

This couple, once out in the world alone. 
Neglected, as many do, their wTiting home; 
Till, after several years had onward sped. 
Then Dora sent a letter with dread; 
'Twas long before a reply thereto come ; 
In it she was blamed for what she'd done; 
So neither she nor John cared very much 
About replying to that, or any letter such ; 
They had gone from a starvation farm 
To one where ^very acre held a charm. 
And they'd gotten along fairly well. 
Without aid from home, for quite a spell; 
They concluded no more letters to write. 
As a kind of silent and cutting spite; 
They'd learn parents how to reply, who had 
Acted toward their children rather bad. 



A PEN PICTURE OE A KANSAS HOME. 69 

XXXII. 

That Fall several families settled near, 
Which was a source of grateful cheer, 
Along both Lyons and Turkey creek, 
Where they had of land their pick; 
And then, only a few short weeks more, 
A family settled near their very door; 
A mile and just about one-half away — 
Such were called neighbors in that day — 
North and west the new comers stopped. 
Soon for a visit over they dropped. 
Friendly was the meeting on that night 
Of the Gales and the newcomers, White; 
Just newly married, only two of them, 
They'd sought a living on the prairie hem, 
As John and his faithful wife had done, 
With less chance for a Waiter's run; 
But many things that could be spared 
The old with the new comers shared; 
They each ofttimes wended back and to. 
Wishing to know how the other did do. 

XXXIII. 

'Tis now October, very near the last; 
A long and lonesome year has passed 
Since John and his better half came, 
A happy home and heritage to gain ; 



O THE LAND OF SIW AND SONG. 

And yet some very pleasant things 
Had dropt from Fortune's shining wings: 
Smith had gone, with four horses, down 
To market in the Leavenworth town, 
For provisions and miscellaneous store 
For himself and John, just as before. 
There was no selfishness in the heart 
Of those who gave the prairie a start ; 
For they all, somehow, seemed to feel 
That theirs was one great, common weal. 
In the appointed and expected time 
Smith returned, with large provision line — 
Quite enough to keep each family well 
Throughout the winter's frosty spell. 

XXXIV. 
A tramping white man comes along, 
Regaling Dora and the babe with song; 
So pleased did John become with him, 
That he hesitated not to take him in; 
He remained the livelong Winter through, 
Cutting wood, at what he cared to do ; 
Some less than forty, and very gay. 
Quite a story teller was Abram Bay; 
Cheerful, jovial, at anything could work — 
Shoot a rifle as well as use a dirk; 
He liked the people, the land, so much, 
Next si)ring he got some in his clutch. 



A PEN PICTURE OF A KANSAS HOME, 71 

About three-fourths of a mile to south, 
AVith the creek near to quench his drouth. 

XXXV. 

The second winter past and done, 
The spring, the second summer, come; 
More than a dozen families settled down, 
Just to the east of John, to make a town; 
His cabin became quite renowned, 
It had a cheery word for all around. 
The weather fair, an October boy is born. 
Just as John begins to husk the corn ; 
Its eyes are large, and round, and blue, 
And weighs about what babies usual do; 
The neighbors come, the baby hails; 
Dora names it John Henry Thomas Gales. 
Everything swimmingly now goes along, 
Dog keeps guard, cat purrs her song; 
A bran new milk cow has been bought 
By John, as a befitting forethought; 
For little Ida wanted milk to drink. 
And, by selling a few quarts for chink, 
It would partly help to tide them o'er 
And somewhat save their winter's store, 

XXXVI. 

Along in January, about the first, 

A cloud of gloom o'er the cabin burst — 



'j:i THE LAXD OF SVX AXD SOXG. 

The little boy baby sickened and died; 
The father and mother, weeping, cried; 
The kindly neighbors, gathering, come, 
Though the trouble was of few hours' run. 
Good Doctor Brown could hardly tell, 
So he called the sickness "malarial/' 
As many others, much wiser than he, 
Have done in earning a ph^-sician fee. 
The little flower that God had given, 
Was plucked and taken back to heaven. 

XXXVII. 

How the da\-s passed 'tis hard to tell; 

The neighbors gathered for the funeral; 

The man of God, with Bible in his hand. 

Said, "death mj^er}" he didn't understand. 

But, in the round of eternal time, 

The bereavement would be seen to be divine.'* 

Dora's grief was ver}, ver}* great; 

John felt the hea\y stroke of &te; 

As Parson A\Tiitman's discourse ended. 

Out of the cabin the procession wended. 

Slowly, mournfully, to the northward. 

There the babe's body they interred; 

Dora laid a leaf wreath on the mound, 

Then to the cabin went, in grief profound. 



A PEN PICTURE OF A KANSAS HOME. 73 

XXXVIII. 
Other settlers continued to come; 
But misfortunes had just begun, 
For the third summer ^Miot winds" came, 
Scorching and killing all the grain; 
Corn was hardly a fifth of a crop; 
The grass was dry enough to chop 
With any ordinary kind of tool; 
But John resolved to take it cool; 
So he kept plowing and planting again, 
Till he had in quite a field of grain; 
Then he prepared, as well as he could. 
For the winter time a supply of food, 
Purchased from ' 'Abilene 's First Store," 
With some silver dollars, over a score, 
Which he'd long kept for a rainy day^, 
Securely hid and carefully put away. 

XXXIX. 

The sky, earth, all looked very blue. 
But they pulled the winter through; 
Fine and gentle rains began to come; 
Famished nature was cheered by the sun; 
Soon everything was growing green; 
Beautiful was the inviting scene. 
On this fourth summer of their stay; 
But about the fifth of June, one day, 



74 THE LAND OF SUN AND SONG. 

Droves of grasshoppers began to alight 
And every green growing thing to bite. 

XL. 

'Twas at noon when down they come, 
So very thick as to darken the siinj 
John tried but couldn't drive them away- 
The stubborn things had come to stay; 
In two days no wheat could be seen, 
And little else that was growing green; 
They began to gnaw away at the corn, 
Just after sun-up the second morn, 
And long before the night set in 
Was nothing but choppings for the bin. 

XLI. 
Ah ! now indeed it was blue times — 
Many had hunted up their last dimes; 
Of corn John still had a little left. 
But it was not of very great heft. 
By June the twentieth, or thereabout, 
The grasshoppers arose and ^^lit out." 
Some of the farmers had gone back. 
But John would ^^ never take that track;' 
So he and Dora worried it through. 
Although the times were terribly blue; 
They lived upon half rations along, 
Singing now and then a bit of song, 



A PEX PICTURE OF A KANSAS HOME, 75 

With a sadly-plaintive kind of air, 

To drive away the phantom of despair. 

XLII. 
John, the only farmer of them all, 
Put in some winter wheat that fall, 
Although the others said it would die 3 
For danger lay lurking in the sky. 
He worked away till forty acres good — 
There was this much or more — everv rood 
Of which was nicely put away to grow, 
Be burnt or eaten up, he didn't know. 
It received the gentle Fall rains. 
And soon promised pay for his pains. 

XLIII. 
Thus things went on till near spring, 
When the woes of want began to sting; 
So John took to hunting timber deer; 
He and Gage met with ample cheer; 
For scarce a day did pass them by 
But some two or three deer did die. 
On the same he and many subsisted 
Till into the May days they drifted. 

XLIV. 

Then help for Kansas' suffering sons; 
Clothino^, wheat, corn and big bread buns 



76 THE LAND OF SUN AND SONG. 

Were kindly sent by many into the West ; 
'Twas hard, but John yielded to the test, 
And accepted of generous Charity mild, 
Not for himself, but for wife and child. 
Some few things and articles of food^ 
To see them through the summer good; 
But he afterward repaid those very bills. 
By putting dollars in Eastern tills 
When the fire fiend had done his work. 
As well as the assassin's hasty dirk; 
Thus bringing helpless, suffering ones 
Upon the mercy of mankind for alms. 

XLV. 
The ripened grain cut and harvested, 
It furnished many mouths with bread. 
And saw John's family safely through 
The winter, with hope and aspiration new. 
He had put in eighty acres of wheat. 
Bringing the next season income neat. 
The seventh summer immigration did come, 
Then, also, was born to John another son — 
Blue-eyed little Isaac Andrew Gales 
The coming prosperity of Kansas hails; 
The eighth summer large fields of grain 
Brought John in most a bountiful gain. 
A town had sprung up, large and near, 
In which was held all sorts of cheer; 



A PEN PICTURE OF A KANSAS HOME. 7 J 

The ^' Texas cattle trade" was running there, 
With rough and tough and ready fair; 
But John worked away, stayed at home, 
Erecting a fine large mansion of his own, 
Not far from the little cabin's site, 
Very much to Dora and Ida's delight. 

XLVL 

The ninth summer's crops w^ere good, 
The tenth, the mansion finished stood, 
And John's family nicely lodged therein, 
Secure from the cares of poverty's din. 
The thriving city has many conveniences — 
Railroads and all kinds of businesses. 
John is elected member of common council, 
To pass on city laws as well each bill. 
Eleventh summer drives best rig on street, 
With white and black stepper, very fleet; 
^'Councilman Gales" is greeted on every hand, 
Both he and his dear little family band. 

XLVII. 
The twelfth summer had hardly come. 
When he had between his finger and thumb 
A deed for two thousand acres of land — 
He'd cattle and hogs on every hand; 
The next winter to the Legislature went 
And learned much of man's artful intent; 



78 THE LAXD OF SUN AND SONG. 

Fourteenth year he holds offices of trust, 
And walks the life of the uprightly just; 
Now he and Dora both join the church, 
To keep aloof from the world's smirch; 
The fifteenth summer Ida's a lady grown, 
With a bright-eyed beau of her own. 

XLVIIL 
Before this time rumor had gone East 
About John's sumptuous table feast; 
The beauty of his grand, costly home, 
And herds that on the plains did roam; 
So the old folks, grown kind and good, 
Had come out to visit their kinhood ; 
Of course John and Dora were pleased — 
Things went as if they were greased — 
But they remembered the letter sent 
When there wasn't such a pleasant bent. 
However, three months past and gone, 
The old folks left the land of song. 
Taking the cars direct for York State, 
Where people live with battling Fate. 

XLIX. 

The county, city, and everything about, 
Kept equal pace on prosperity's route; 
All enterprises brought John good -hap. 
Fortune emptied her well-filled lap 



A FEX PICTURE OF A KAXSAS HOME. 79 

Into the hands of all who came along, 
To live or recreate in the land of dawn. 
Young Isaac is a lad away at school, 
Ida spends her time on the piano stool, 
And is becoming quite adept, they say, 
In rendering the ^'Moonlight Sonata." 

L. 

Contentment is Dora's daily lot, 
For her friendship is much sought; 
And John aspires to Congress some; 
For, between Ingalls, Anderson, Plumb, 
Very soon an opening there must be, 
Then he'll write his name before M. C. ; 
For in aught he never failed as yet — 
He's got the go-ahead, nerve and grit; 
And these three combined, you know, 
In time will weary either friend or foe, 
Especially when held in honest hands, 
In a rich region like the Kansas lands. 

LI. 

And thus it is on our borders now; 
Many coming, to fate and poverty bow. 
But by strictly honest toil and stay 
The clouds soon lift and float away; 
Fortune, with her mildly-beaming eye, 
Lights up all the fair, bright sky, 



So THE LAXD OF SUX AXD SOXG. 

And in a short time they gain a home 
From which they never more will roam. 
Reader, once you become a true Kansan, 
Such you'll remain till this life is done. 

LII. 
At this day John is happy as can be — 
Favored, rich in earth's prosperity; 
Beginning with little but the ox and cow, 
A great millionaire he 's counted now. 
Reader, this is no exceptional case; 
Many such there are about this place; 
Throuo^hout the vast, fair Kansas lands, 
^lany may be found who brought their hands 
Little more — and have builded like John, 
Surrounded by just as lovely a lawn. 

LIII. 
Poor man. this is the land for you! 
Here there is plenty of work to do, 
And employers who will give proper pay, 
So as to make sure against a rainy day; 
Or, here you may ix)ssess a piece of land, 
And in time be one of the moneyed band; 
For the rare richness of this soil 
AVell rewards each worker for his toil. 
But I must leave this Kansas home, 
For my Muse another path would roam; 



A PEN PICTURE OE A KANSAS HOME. 8 1 

E'en now impatient, she would stray, 
Enticed by the glimmers of that ray, 
Breaking brightly o'er yon moonlit lea — 
Hark! she's calling ^^ Haste away with me." 



THE MOONLIGHT LEA, 



CANTO THIRD. 



THE MOONLIGHT LEA, 



'Tis almost the ending now of May, 
The time's well on in the eighties; ay, 
The moon never shed a milder light 
Than comes floating romid this night; 
The elves and fairies upon the green 
Have gathered for a mirthful scene, 
Just left of the long and shady lane, 
From the ^' Queen City of the Plai.n" 
Running south to are Smoky River lea, 
L^pon a level lawn, beautiful to see — 
Lovely as a carpet of silver thread, 
O'er which the feet of seraphnn tread. 

IT. 

Naiads hasten thither with their queen. 
From groves of Armstadt, fair and green ; 
jMost divinely beautiful is the night; 
The moon casts forth her mildest light ; 
And all the lovely landscape round 
Is hushed in reposeful peace profound. 

(85) 



86 THE LAXD OF SUX AXD SONG. 

'Tis just before the hour of eleven, 
Angels earthward wing from heaven, 
As the notes and choruses of song 
Arise from the gleeful, singing throng. 
Gathered about the queen of naiads now. 
Under fealty, love and friendship's vow. 

III. 
The music thrilled my tuneful soul, 
As its notes fell on the night air's roll, 
While I was wending, as I sometimes do, 
To muse, to meditate, and muse anew. 
Oh ! the glory of the night-time scene 
Is peculiarly delightful for reverie dream, 
To those who see the beauties rare 
Which God has placed on earth, in air; 
Those tesselated fringes of Aidenn light 
Are best visible in the hours of night. 

IV. 

My wandering steps thitherward wended. 
As the mingling notes of song ascended ; 
My stand I took, 'neath a convenient tree; 
From this place I could both hear and see; 
So there I gazed, with rapturous sight. 
On the splendors of that heavenly light, 
Floating about naiads, angels, elves. 
And mirthful fairies from the dells; 



THE MOONLIGHT LEA. 87 

All had gathered about the naiad queen, 
To waken notes of minstrelsy supreme. 

V. 

Oh ! heavenly it was there to stand, 
A citizen, on the Kansas free-soil land, 
That museful, mild and mirthful night, 
Then beholding such a cheery sight. 
My rapt soul scarcely did refrain 
From repeating each chorus o'er again; 
But well I knew slightest stir from me 
Would make the moonlight minstrels flee; 
So I stood beneath the friendly shade. 
Witnessing the lovely moonlight parade. 

VI. 

Round they marched, by two and twos, 
In their bright gilt and golden shoes; 
They wore rich robes of gauzy light, 
To hide each little breast from sight. 
Lovely were the elves, the fairies fair, 
The naiads and the nymphs everywhere; 
Beautiful were the angel messengers, too, 
That kept floating in and out of view, 
Circling round about the naiad queen, 
Arrayed in robes of heavenly sheen; 
Their crowns appeared like jewels rare. 
More bri;^"ht than earthly mortals wear. 



88 THE LAXD OF SUX AXD SOXG. 

Lightly looped was each bodice of lace, 
Which silver threads held in its place. 

VII. 
Now, there, behold the breeze swells. 
With a laughing troop of Kansas belles, 
Who wend the lea in search of love, 
Directed there by spirit guides above. 
To the very spot where the naiads be. 
Passing not far distant from my tree; 
Each arrayed in lightest summer wear, 
With bosom and lower limb quite bare; 
Round about, with the naiads now they go 
This way, that, then forming in a row. 
The scene seemed lovely to me before, 
But now like glimpse past heaven's door. 
To mortal first admitted there to view 
The bright, celestial landscape through. 
The elves and fairies, ah ! no, not they. 
Never a single one of them flitted away; 
The maidens seemed to hold a spell 
On everything of life about the dell; 
The same I know was true of me, 
Though they realized not its witchery. 

VIII. 
The naiad queen sings a tender rhyme. 
Followed by all on the repeating line; 



THE MOOXLIGHT LEA. 8g 

Then a number, in their varied turn, 
The blissful art of her did learn ; 
They sang the fleeting hours away, 
Till after the new, incoming day 
Had emerged from the midnight mart, 
And gained on its round quite a start; 
It must have been three in the morn 
When they timid became of the dawn — 
Both ladies, nymphs and naiads all, 
Elves and fairies, large and small; 
For the sweet singing then had ceased, 
As light lit up the glowing east; 
But what more to them befell, 
A different meter here shall tell. 

IX. 

GREETIXG OF THE NAIAD QUEEX. 

^'Welcome, one and all. 

Each lady, nymph and naiad, 
Each elve and fairy small. 

Welcome to our night parade; 
I greet you now with cheer. 
And bid vou welcome here. 

^^The evening is so fine. 

The moon shines down so calm; 
The zephyr's breath 's divine, 
Sweetly perfumed is the balm; 



90 THE LAXD OF SUX AXD SOXG, 

I greet you now with cheer, 
And bid you welcome here. 

'^Let the time be passed in song, 
For t^elestial is the lea; 
The land's a land of dawn. 

Fair as any may wish to see; 
I greet you now with cheer, 
And bid you welcome here. 

^'Oh! then let us merrily sing, 
And laugh the time away, 
While angels on the wing 
Join in our earthly lay; 
I greet you noAv with cheer, 
And bid you welcome here." 

X. 

As her melodious voice did fall, 
Thev crreet each other, s^reat and small: 
For most jovial is their mood. 
With no care or sorrow to intrude. 
Lightly the passing moments flew 
Away, like mists of morning dew. 
Fleeting to some briglit destiny far. 
Beyond the moon, beyond each star, 
Away to the spirit sphere so still, 
Under the brow of the heavenly hill. 



THE MOONLIGHT LEA. 9 1 

XL 

SONG BY ESTELO. 

'^I, for these ladies here, 

Return with glee our felicity, 
For your welcome, dear — 
Your welcome, dear. 

'^Thy lov'd accents, fair queen, 

Make joyous now, all will allow. 
This fair moonlight scene — 
Fair moonlight scene. 

'^Most delightful it is to be 

Unincumbered, and be number' d 
In such fair company — 
Such fair company. 

'^No care of earth doth intrude; 
No weary wrangle or entangle 
Of the selfish multitude — 
The selfish multitude. 

^^Ye naiads, nymphs and fairies, 
Ye people frail, you we hail, 
Where no carking care is — 
Carking care is." 

XII. 

Now tlie gay minstrels, joining hands, 
Waltzed about in troops and bands; 



92 THE LAXD OF SU.Y AXD SONG, 

Gay as bright gayety ever seems, 
When charmed with hopes and dreams, 
Builded out of shining fabrics fair. 
Somewhat like the rarest kind of air 
That floats about in the world above, 
Where angels meet to hold their love. 
Another circle, soon again they make, 
And a little fay, for courtesy's sake. 
Sings to them a sweet rambling line. 
Some notes of which sounded divine 
On the innermost ear of my soul, 
As the air toward my tree did roll; 
For the voice was musical, though frail. 
As ever charmed the zephyr or the gale 

XTII. 
THE FAV'S SONXx. 

'^Fiddle de fee, 
What are we; 
Gilt and golden, 
Young and olden, 
Gather' d on this lea? 

*'Who will come 
When the round is run. 
To look at us. 
In the muddy muss, 
For love or fun? 



THE MOOXLIGHT LEA, 93 

''Can any spell 
The riddle tell — 

Whether breath 

Bringeth death, 
Or the dew of dell? 

*'Doth drops of rain, 
On the parched plain, 
Grow the seed? 
Or, is't the mead 
That gives life again? 

''I would we knew 
Something true 

Of wood or wold, 

Glowing gold, 
Before all is through." 

XIV. 

A^ery lithe was the fay that sang; 

But her pointed accents rang 

Into their lives a kind of chill, 

That held for a time the buoyant will; 

But shortly a more mirthful boon 

Gave to one little nymph a joyous tune ; 

It lightly sang, with peerless art. 

To the loves and crosses of the heart, 

As cunning Cupid, with all his train, 

Came deftlv bounding o'er the plain; 



94 THE LAXD OF SCX AXD SOXG. 

And good Queen Mab, in her silver car, 
Hither sped, Hke a shooting star; 
While the brownies from the wood. 
Gathering about them, breathless stood: 

XV. 

THE XYMPH's SOXG. 

''Let cares be light; 
We dance to-night 
To the heart's delight — 
Hi, happy ho! hi, happy ho! 

''Were life but a day, 
I would be gay, 
In the sunshine ray — 
Hi, happy ho! hi, happy ho! 

"In the wood or lea, 
I will be free; 
It's all the same to me — 
Hi, happy ho! hi, happy ho! 

"Little, frail and small, 
I tumble like a ball. 
And never mind a fall — 
Hi, happy ho! hi, happy ho!" 

XVI. 
As the nymph's song died away. 
Clapping hands the tune did play; 



THE MOONLIGHT LEA. 95 

In imitation I moved my feet about, 
In jubilant ecstacy near did shout; 
The httle brownies were so very cute, 
With hat and cap and red -topped boot, 
Made of leaves and lilies, roses rare, 
Which perfumed all the night-tide air. 
That I fairly laughed within myself 
To see the costume of each little elf. 
But when silence was again restored, 
Cupid some couplets then outpoured; 
The music was a selection of his own. 
The chorus the revelers did groan: 

XVII. 

CUPID SINGS. 

*'You may quip and quirk and play, 
On this bright moonlit lea; 
If I hadn't cast my quiver away, 
I'd put in every bonnet a bee.'' 

Chorus, by all — 

^^Mean little fellow. 
With coat of golden yellow — 
Mean ! mean ! mean ! ' ' 

*^Why did the ladies come alone, 
With never a lover near? 
It gives me joy to cause a groan. 
Or spill a sparkling tear." 



96 THE LAXD OF SUX AXD SOXG. 

Chorus, by all — 

^'Mean little fellow, 
With coat of golden yellow — 
!Mean I mean ! mean ! ' ' 

'•Yes, call me mean, if you will, 
There's no one to take my part; 
But only when all life is still 
Will I spare a shining dart." 

Chorus, by all — 

'•'Mean little fellow, 
With coat of golden yellow — 
]\lean I mean I mean ! ' ' 

XVIII. 
Cupid hung his head in silent shame; 
The naiad queen asked his name, 
But he hadn't any name to tell 
To all the myriads of the dell; 
Yet when a day rolled right the hour. 
Each of them should feel his power; 
For he had a bow and arrows good. 
Not thence distant many a rood; 
Had he them he would show them all 
It's unfair to scoff at one so small; 
For he 'd learned the art to throw 
An unerring shaft from his gilded bow, 



THE MOONLIGHT LEA. 97 

Directly at the very mark so true, 
That all the world his archery knew. 
In this strain Cupid talked to them, 
Standing amid the moonlight glen. 

XIX. 

The naiad queen made meek reply: 
*^My little man, your archery we defy; 
For in the wood and on the wold 
Enchantment's happy spells we hold ; 
And there 's a kind of silver mist, 
That gives your arrow^ points a twist 
Past the mark selected for your aim — 
Yours, or any archer's, great of fame. 
But see! the dryads from the grove 
This way to our festivities rove; 
My little man, myriad is their bands — 
They may bind you with their hands; 
Indeed, at a given signal from me, 
You'd regret your boastful glee." 

XX. 

Little Cupid did not dare to speak. 
He looked quite submissive, meek; 
And tried a different kind of tack 
To gain by cunning what he did lack. 
He pretended, by the happiest turn. 
To be a kind of pupil, come to learn; 



98 THE LAND OF SUN AND SONG. 

Content with any place upon the lawn 
Rather than not be counted them among. 
It was thus the little fellow's guile 
Held their apprehensions for awhile. 
He 'd sent both for quiver and for bow, 
But of this they did not even know, 
And the messenger had returning come, 
And delivered them with gesture mum; 
Once again the circle gathering formed. 
While a little brownie speaking, stormed: 

XXI. 

THE brownie's SPEECH. 

^^Ohl fine indeed ye are, 

]\Iy lovely Lady ]Mab; 
Bright your silver car 

As any city's cab; 
Would you give to us, 

Light little brownies, 
Loan of your gilded 'bus. 

To see what the world is? 

^^Ho, ye little fellow there. 
With bright bended stick! 

Oh ! ah me, I do declare. 
Your looks make me sick; 

And the naiad queen of all, 
I'd like to kiss her now; 



THE MOONLIGHT LEA, 99 

She is so graceful, tall, 

I wish I was as big, I vow, 

'^What's that hit my heart? 

Oh! ah, it hurts my breast; 
It gave me a dreadful start, 

Going right through my chest; 
I do believe yon little man, 

With bended piece of wood. 
Threw w^ith his finger span 

A pain from where he stood." 

XXII. 

Then the company round Cupid broke. 
But, quite slyly, beneath his cloak. 
He 'd hid his bow, and quiver too, 
And denied that anything he threw. 
The brownie now had better grown, 
So the company let Cupid fair alone, 
And hastily betook themselves to dance^ 
In the wildest ecstacy of trance. 
I adored the naiad queen so free. 
Whereat Cupid shot an arrow then at me^ 
Which lodged in the branches overhead, 
But never a word between us was said. 
Queen Mab before the company stood 
And gave a touch at rhyming very good: 



lOO THE LAXD OF SUX AXD SOXG. 

XXIII. 
QUEEN MAB's melody. 

'•The mists in the mirror rove, 
The wind is whist and still. 
The distant whip-poor-will 
Softly sini:::s within the crrove — 
The £:rove of man or Jove : 
Let him tell, he who may, 
Like witch adrift in a tray, 
When no bottom's near, 
And the wind blows clear — 
Her destiny, who may say. 

*'L'p in the sk}-, sky, sky, 
Where my steeds fleetly roam. 
There 's many an eye will cry, 
And watch till I come home. 
I, Mab, the fairy queen — 
Mv dress is £:olden 2:reen ; 
The wonders of the world 
At m}- two feet are hurled. 
As well as the lords of air. 
For they speak me very fair. 

'•'Mv car came crlidins: on a rav, 
A kind of silvery spike. 
Amid the moonlight spray 
Thrown alons: this lovelv dvke. 



THE MOOXLIGIIT LEA, lOI 

Welcome, fairies, one and all; 
Welcome, my little lad 
With golden jacket small ; 
You're the curious little tad 
That tried to wound me last fall 
When I a love flirtation had. 

^' Don't pout your lip at me, 
Don't frown away delight. 
Or I '11 send a bumble-bee 
Your little lip to bite. 
Hark ! my lover is calling ; 
I hear his voice a-falling 
Adown the fleecy folds of air — 
Ah! that little villain yonder, 
Hit me with a dart point fair, 
The moment I of love did ponder." 

XXTV. 

'Oh, no! I didn't, thou queen of air; 
Such a wanton trick I wouldn't dare. 
I'm a homeless, wandering little boy; 
I delight to see the people full of joy; 
It was all a joke, when I said before, 
I'd wage a wanton war forevermore; 
I only just said that, you know, to see 
Its effect on all this great c^()mi)an\'. 



102 THE LAND OF SUN AND SONG. 

^^ Believe me, the dance may now go on, 
If each keeps mind the dance upon, 
Without mishap or any sort of mar; 
But should a down-falling star 
Happen to light upon anybody's head. 
While wishing that he or she were wed, 
Pray do not turn the blame all on me, 
For I don't control the stars, you see; 
And I'm provided with no great big shield, 
To keep them from falling in this field." 

XXV. 

The little fellow talked so very fair 
That he drove suspicion from them there. 
After this it wasn't so very long 
Until Queen Luna descended them among; 
That mild, fair goddess of the night 
Regaled them with a rhapsody light. 
She was arrayed in a starlit gauze 
Which gained admiration's applause; 
Tho' dark the groundwork of her robe, 
A gleam celestial about her flowed; 
Her friendly voice was richly mild. 
As she began her song and smiled : 

XXVI. 

QUEEN LUNa's SONG. 

^^Hovv happ'd I here to come? 
The day is j^ast and done; 



THE MOOA'LIGHT LEA. IO3 

Up in the skies 
A million eyes 
Peered at me as I run — 

*^Run down the milky way, 
On a kind of sliding tray, 

Till I saw this lea 

And its mirthful glee — 
'Twas this bade me stay. 

*' Please treat me well, 
While with you I dwell; 

For ere morning light 

Dazzles on my sight, 
I must hasten to my cell; 

*^For you know I've a love, 
A little royal dove — 

Hi ! what is that? 

Something hit me pat. 
Just here, the heart above. 

^'It must be a piece of frost, 
That in the air was lost; 
But it 's something queer — 
How could it hit me here, 
By the wind witches tost? 



I04 THE LAND OF SUN AND SONG. 

''\i wasn't my lover, I know — 
Hi ! ah ! there again, ho ! 

This pain perplexes me; 

The cause I do not see; 
There 's something hurts me so. 

^^ Please excuse my rhyme; 
I may sing some other time, 
When the pain passes by; 
Now I cannot sing, but sigh 
At the end of every line." 

XXVII. 
Cupid stood just out of the light, 
Laughing with convulsive delight ; 
For he 'd slily sent a shining dart 
That hit the fair singer in the heart. 
And had sped another on its way 
To find where the first one lay. 
Some curious alarm now broke around. 
That it was enchanted, mystic ground; 
But silly such thought seemed to be. 
For beautiful was the moonlight lea; 
And no wicked sprite or goblin grim 
Round about them did float or swim, 
To disturb any little being there — 
The scene was too benign and fair. 



THE MOOXLIGHT LEA. 105 

XXVIII. 

KING OF DRYADS SINGS. 

^'Witchery wonder, storm and thunder; 
Some go lip and some go under; 
Some go flitting through into the blue, 
And leave behind no clew. 

*^But what is best, who may attest, 
In the east or in the west ? 
Can there be for a witch at sea 
Any hope for the witch to flee? 

''You may not know what oats to sow — 
Whether with the drill or furrow; 
But if you wait 'twill be too late 
When vou hear the laus^h of Fate. 

''Little folks round, and under ground. 
In the air, and the river drown' d, 
Up and away ere the mists at play 
Sweep all the light away." 

XXIX. 

The dryad's song was curious, strange; 
But to a mind that can o'er it range 
There 's much more than seems to be 
Upon the surface for every one to see. 
Besides, the dryad was small, you know, 
And he lacked of words a readv flow 



I06 THE LAND OF SiW AXD SONG. 

Wherewith to explain all he understood, 
According to the rules of syntax good; 
But he said enough so they could guess 
On what words to lay the heaviest stress; 
Although he wasn't very much concerned 
AVliich way the import thereof turned; 
For he 'd striven as much to misdirect 
As to make his words concisely correct, 
Having a kind of willful, treasured spite 
At some who 'd gathered there that night. 
No matter what the disagreement was, 
Such little folk differ as well as us; 
But in order to help the cheer along 
Morning Star sang her sweetest song; 
She'd appeared and was greeted by all; 
Musically her voice did rise and fall: 

XXX. 

SONG BV MORNING STAR. 

•^My house is up in the sky. 
The world above ever so high; 
Thence often I wander away, 
To lend the traveler my ray ; 
For sometimes in the dark 
'Tis nice to have a spark, 
To light one's weary feet 
O'er the lawn or stony street. 



THE MOOXLIGHT LEA, lo; 

'•I lead a joyous life, 
And expect soon to be a wife, 
For my lover is very true — 
Oh! I declare, what shall I do? 
Something struck me in the lieart — 
Its point pierced like a dart; 
Oh I the perplexing, terrible pain 
Goes flashino; to mv brain. 

^'I really fear I'll die — 
Quick, call my lover from the sky; 
There, my sake, another probe; 
Oh ! bring me some kind of robe 
To keep the night airs away, 
While on this mead I resting lay. 
Ah ! every pulse is growing sick. 
Each heartbeat is throbbing quick." 

XXXI. 

Upon the rich green grass she sank — 
It was soft as down, but no wa}- dank; 
Fairies brought roses for her head. 
And leaves with which to make a bed; 
Little attentions there were paid 
That could any way the fair one aid. 
After a very short time had passed 
The painful throbbings all unclasped, 



I08 THE LAXD OF SUN AXD SOXG. 

And Morning Star rejoined the groups, 
Cheering again the lithesome troops. 
Strange was thought her sickness by all 
Save the cunning little fellow small. 
He 'd carefully put some arrows away, 
To be supplied for the ending play; 
For he knew that parties must go home, 
And that all would not go alone; 
He was very sly in shooting them, 
And always from out the darkened hem 
Of the somber, shaded atmosphere around. 
Without making the slightest sound. 

XXXIT. 

THE ANGEL OF HOPE SINGS. 

''I've listened to your songs; 
Sweet they seem to be; 
Beautiful the moonlight dawns 
Fall upon this lea. 

"But what comes after singing, 

When the concert all is through? 
I hear a kind of ringing. 
As if bells were calling you. 

''Onward the brooklet wends. 
Over bright golden sands; 
But know you where it tends, 
In the shade of other lands? 



THE MOONLIGHT LEA. lOQ 

'^In the sky the robin whistles; 

In the tree the squirrel chatters; 
The lifetime bloom of thistles 
The wind of autumn scatters. 

'^Know that in the mirrored sky 
All forms are painted true ; 
One may curse or one may cry, 
But the record speaketh true. 

''There is a city of the blest 

Where glory shineth like a star; 
'Tis made for happiness and rest — 
Ah ! there my sisters are. 

^'Oft along the sky at even 
I wend in a golden dress; 
Out with the holy Stephen 
To relieve some distress. 

''But, mayhap, my wandering song 
Grows tedious, tiresome, now; 
It was unfair to urge it upon 
Such harmless folk as thou. 

"So here I'll close my lay. 

And bid each one a kind adieu; 
When I'm up in heaven, aye, 
I'll wait and watch for you." 



I lO THE LAND OF SUN AND SONG. 

XXXIII. 

THE FAIRY AND THE ANGEL. 

Fairy : 
''Angel, stay a moment, 
I would ask of thee, 
Are there any rooms to rent 
In heaven for we ? ' ' 

Angel : 
''No rent is taken there; 

All on one footing stand ; 
The way is up a golden stair, 
Leading to that land." 

Fauj : 
"Can fairies the stair find. 
And climb, so very steep? 
Some mischiefs of ill mind 
Might us from it sweep." 

Angcl : 
"If that way }ou 'd climb, 
You must hold, no doubt; 
But with a faith sublime 
Start upon the route." 

Fauj : 
"They might not let us in. 
After we the journey made, 



THE MOONLIGHT LEA. Ill 

And the light might be dim — 
No star of hope to aid." 



Angel : 
''\\\\ the Star of Hope; 
If you '11 go with me, 
I '11 beg the gate to ope — 
Open fair for thee." 

XXXIV. 

Then the little fairy hmig her head; 
She pondered every word was said; 
But she couldn't agree to go along 
Without the whole of the merry throng, 
And they would never all consent 
To journey upward with one intent; 
They 'd had such good times together, 
Much, indeed, it was doubted whether 
Ever a happier place there could be 
Than this delightful Kansas country. 
It made the angel downcast and sad — 
All the celestials felt quite bad. 
Although the concert moved along 
Until the dim east showed signs of dawn; 
Then all the company sang a parting lay, 
Before bidding adieu and flitting away: 



I 12 THE LAXD OF SCX AXD SOXG. 

XXXV. 

THE COMPANY SING. 

^'Oh! merry has been the time 
Passed in this Kansas clime, 
Since first we drifted along 
To this ^Land of Sun and Song;' 
The days and nights go by 
Without a mournful sigh; 
Oh ! bliss beyond our telling. 
Is the south wind's swelling ; 
For it fans every care away 
'Neath the night-tide spray. 

''Soon we must hence to sleep, 
But with one eye let us peep 
At this beautiful moonlight lea, 
Fair as foam of silvered sea. 
The birds of ocean never fly 
Through half as fair a sky; 
E'en tlie peris bright of air 
Look not on aught more fair; 
For the gods used all their skill 
In decking both plain and rill. 

''But see! light is in the east; 
'Tis time this singing ceased; 
For, should the morn break free, 
Our eyes would dazzle on this lea- 



THE MOOXLIGHT LEA. I I 3 

Perplexing the little brownies, O, 
Till they'd not know where to go; 
So, adieu; now we will be off — 
Each their things may doff, 
And lie cuddled up in bed 
And sleep till the day is sped." 

XXXVI. 

Then they went, by two and twos. 
Busy little Cupid took his dews; 
He was in ecstacy of sportive glee, 
Shooting darts, as each did flee ; 
Upon my ears many a love -sick moan 
Came floating back as I stood alone; 
For the ladies, angels, fairies all, 
Each little nymph and naiad small. 
Had hastened fleet-footed away, 
To be in bed at the break of day. 
So deserted was the moonlight lea, 
A feeling of sadness came over me. 
The round world will sometime swing 
Through space, as tenantless a thing, 
With never a single cheerful ray, 
And all the fairy folk gone away. 

XXXVII. 

Then turning, I wended back to town. 
Just as the queen of dawn looked down, 



8 



I 14 THE LAXD OF SUX AXD SOXG. 

Casting on me her kindliest smiles, 
As if the great world and its wiles 
Needed not her most attentive care, 
To start it on the day journey fair. 
'Tis true, I 'd squandered the night. 
But it left on my soul a picture bright, 



A REALM OF ROMANCE. 



CANTO FOURTH. 



A REALM OF ROMANCE. 



I. 

Poetic dreamers of nearly every age 
Have wandered wide on pilgrimage, 
Searching for realms of romantic view; 
For blooming flowers, fresh with dew; 
For rivers rippling with silver wave, 
In which the fevered brow to lave; 
For groves where little fairies rim; 
For lands whose days are always sun: 
For airs whose breath, celestial, mild, 
Makes hearty, hale, the sage and child; 
For morns that bear no floating mist; 
For loves that angel lips have kissed; 
For moons whose mild reflections are 
Wafted through isles of light afar; 
For founts of crystal-seeming jet; 
For stars of heaven that never set — 
They 've been searching for such lands. 
Beautified with flowery, fronded palms. 

II. 

These searchers oft have weary grown, 
In wandering round the world alone; 

("9) 



I20 THE LAXD OF SUX AXD SOXG. 

Their eyes with restless longing pined. 
To look on what they could not find; 
Their finely-fibered souls >\'ithin, 
Wearied with -the city's endless din, 
The daily round of drudgery and toil, 
The hall decked off with gilded foil, 
The impure waters of the sluggish tide, 
The pomp of too much aristocratic pride. 
The cant of cold, conventional life, 
The wTangling place of business strife, 
The undue deceptions of the many men, 
The desperation of the robber's den — 
These and more they' ve left behind, 
Wandering some blissful shot to find. 

III. 
Such a realm has been lately found. 
Richly romantic as ever did abound; 
Blest with warmth of genial simshine, 
And fresh, wide -rolling glades divine; 
Groves where birds of plumage light, 
Moons that beam through all the night; 
Grasses and grains all wa\'ing, too, 
Present a lovely pictiu-e to the view; 
The men are modeled after manly mold, 
The women worth more than shining gold; 
The bright little lads have curly hair; 
The modest maidens, beautifully rare. 



A REALM OF ROMANCE. 12 1 

Kind reader, all this has been seen; 
'Tis no idle, fevered, fancy dream, 
But fact, susceptible of proper proof — 
This, on word of honor, is the truth. 

IV, 

You ask, ^^ Where is this realm of rest? 
The people there must be very blest. 
If it is as you have spoken now. 
Take my pledged and plighted vow. 
That before another moon doth wane. 
This fair country I will gladly scan. 
It must be delightful there to roam, 
With view of finding a bright home; 
Then haste thee, and tell me soon. 
Ere is gone my blissful summer bloom; 
For Time is treading somewhat near; 
He 's a herald I both hate and fear; 
Mayhap some line doth there abound 
That will stay him in his round." 

V. 

Since you 'd learn that country's name, 
'Tis Kansas — with her rolling plain. 
Her lakes, her lawns, her rivers blest, 
Known as the ''Garden of the West ; " 
In the center of these United States, 
Shielded from famine and the fates, 



122 THE LAXD OF SUX AXD SOXG. 

And favored more than I may tell — 
Oh ! come, within her borders dwell. 
If thou art inclined to romantic views, 
I can give to thee no better news. 
Than to say, here Queen Romance dwells, 
On bright plains, in sunny dells. 
Ah ! you should that lovely lady see. 
Bedecked and garbed most beauteously. 

VI, 
This richly-fertile airy fairy land 
Shows impress of our ^Maker's hand; 
The soil 's as fallow as ever lay 
Germinant in the sun's descending ray; 
The atmosphere 's like balm to breathe, 
With nothing in this realm to grieve. 
A tradition, or talk, I 've fancied such, 
Amongst Spaniards who lirst did touch 
Oar borders, fifteen hundred forty-one. 
Is, that never was seen a brighter dawn 
Than broke over these prairies grand, 
Denominated by them ^-Enchantment Land." 

vn. 

Reader, this same tradition tells. 
Of a lone wonder witch's spells. 
Who enchanted, with strange delight, 
All the glowing landscape bright; 



A REALM OF ROMA AXE. 12 3 

Changing to \outh all who 'd grown old, 
Tipping each blade of grass with gold; 
Each running brook with silvery sheen, 
Every knoll with a sunbright beam. 
Every flower with a deeper bloom; 
She made the frogs to sing at noon, 
The cows to kneel in the middle night, 
According to the ancient Eastern rite; 
For wild cattle roamed these lands 
Before the white men came in clans. 

VIII. 
'Tis by the same authority true, 
(Reader, I cannot vouch for it to you,) 
That Fancy with her wondrous train, 
Here assembling, trooped upon the plain; 
They held a castle all marble built — 
No blood of subject e'er was spilt — 
Located in the center of the State; 
White, its walls, of dimensions great; 
There arose turret, dome and minaret, 
With gold and diamonds fairly set; 
The inner rooms were decked with lace; 
Amber tapered candles lit the place; 
Love basked in silvery drawing rooms. 
Breathing the odor of sweet perfumes; 
Queen Romance held the ro\al line, 
And was worshipped as one divine. 



124 T^^^ LAXD OF SUX AXD SOXG. 

IX. 

It is asserted that for ages back — 
Xo historian doth the time track — 
This fair queen held continuous sway; 
That angels about her castle did play; 
And the gods came from their spheres 
To woo her both with wealth and tears; 
But she, mindful of the blisses round, 
Heeded not wealth or pleading sound, 
And turned them from her gates awa}-, 
Both at morn and noon and close of day; 
For she could not be induced to go 
From this perpetual summer's flow, 
Up to the far-away worlds of light, 
There to be crowned with honors bright; 
For she held a blissful kingdom here. 
And wouldn't leave it for any sphere. 

X. 

Pity, indeed, it was, I ween, to see, 
Rejected gods mounting up wearily. 
Through the far-off folds of air, 
And hear them chanting out despair; 
For Queen Romance was far renowned ; 
Of her beauty they 'd heard much sound 
Heralded throughout the spheres of light; 
Talk was nothincr to a witching sight; 



A REALM OF ROMAXCE. 125 



Features fairer than goddess of the sky, 
And oh ! the glance of her liquid eye ; 
So deeply calm and so benignly mild, 
Its lashes and luster drove them wild ; 
But all they would, no art might move 
Her purpose from its wonted groove; 
Mild, lady-like, gentle as a cooing dove, 
She replied to them, ''Earthly is my love." 

XI. 
'Tis queer the gods should care 
For aught earthly and less fair. 
Having those blest worlds of light 
Ever before their rapturous sight. 
Yes, it seems a problem very strange; 
But to ' those who take a wider range 
Of passions, pleasures, mortal lusts. 
Of hopes and fears and worldly dusts, 
Mixed and moved like a pot of broth. 
All interlaced like gold of cloth. 
It isn't so strange as it would seem, 
For earth's best have had such dream — 
Poets, ministers, clowns, lawyers low. 
All curious the charm of love to know. 
Then why should not a god be true 
To the passion supreme in me or }ou? 
For love is talisman of earth and skies, 
And lives on after the bodv dies. 



126 THE LAXD OF SUX AXD SOXG. 

XII. 
She oft walked forth in fine array, 
To greet the beauties of the day, 
And lingered from her castle late, 
Talking with some dignitary great 
Who had stayed far past his time, 
From the chorus of the evening chime, 
Sounded up above the earthly orbit. 
Where all the gods to worship met, 
In making preparations for the night. 
With crown and vesture more bright; 
For it is said an an^rel verv fair 
AValked gently down the golden stair, 
And with a little rod of ambient hue 
Touched with radiance each crown anew. 
Of course, the god who wasn't round 
Could hear no evening bugle sound — 
Could gain from the rod no divinity. 
Thus he took a desperate chance, you see; 
But such chance gods and men will take 
Where a woman's love is the stake. 

XIII. 
Please don't frown, my literary friend, 
If the writer doth digressing wend, 
For 'tis said the first new-made man. 
In that Eden age of creation's span, 



A REALM OF ROMANCE, 12 'J 

After he 'd lost a rib, and it was turned 
Into a woman, he for that woman yearned. 
But very kindly she helped the fall 
By pointing out to him an apple small, 
Which the serpent with his slippery tongue 
Had deep with damning evil stung. 
It would seem she wasn't very fair 
In not disclosing the danger there; 
For surely she knew, after she did eat. 
Whether the apple tasted sour or sweet; 
And if she 'd left Adam to himself alone 
He 'd probably made selection of his own. 
And chanced to eat of the tree of life; 
And offspring, from such a knowing wife. 
Would have nothing more to discover. 
Than simply love and live forever. 

XIV. 
Therefore, when we take a look around, 
Over all that first historic ground. 
We can't blame gods or men very well. 
If they seek some solace for what befell 
In daughters of her who didn't disclose 
Till Adam ate and learned the woes; 
And are their natures not much the same, 
In the perplexities of love's game? 
For will they not lead an admirer on, 
Till the mind and reason 's gone, 



128 THE LAXD OF SUX AXD SOXG. 

And then, sometimes^ with wanton weal, 
Reject as if they'd no hearts to feel? 
Why not turn the gentle passion tide 
When his thoughts are wandering wide, 
Before they 're all concentered there 
And he falls into the foolish snare? 

XV. 

Ah! simple question; askest thou why? 
Did Eve not stand most gracefully by, 
Persuading our father Adam to eat, 
When she knew the curse of the meat? 
Then, would it be natural in feature 
For her kind to spare a love-lorn creature. 
By pouring cold comfort on the flame 
Before it had driven him insane? 
There is harmony in heaven, they say; 
Harmon V in niirht, and harmonv in dav ; 
Harmony on earth, and harmony in man — 
Disregard running events if you can. 

XVI. 
Romance, not unlike her sisters fair, 
Delighted the love gods to ensnare; 
Then, with a cold and queenly frown, 
She 'd stamp her slippered foot down, 
Just to see the consternation it made. 
And how from her presence they'd fade. 



A REALM OF ROMANCE. 1 29 

Conquest and capture were her delight; 
Her pastime the heart hopes to blight. 
For the days and the months fled on 
Without regret, when they were gone; 
For you know her charms, still young, 
Didn't change as others have done; 
Romance never lacked for an eye 
To be looking on her from the sky; 
If, haply, she wished a lover to come. 
She 'd snap her finger and thumb, 
And a flutter of wings soon would be 
Furled in her castle court free. 

XVII. 

But, speaking of the women, I know, 
In this tone of censurable flow. 
Will seem to be very rude and unfair, 
If I don't to the m.en have a care; 
For it 's a fact that all will admit. 
Many a married man is wholly unfit 
For the slave of the wife he gains — 
Bringing to her nothing but pains; 
Rough, uncouth, uncultured and unkept — 
Better dirt out the door 's been swept. 
Deception, falsehood, baseness, crime. 
Far-down dens, other women and wine, 
Occupy their attentions full late. 
While wives at home shivering wait, 
9 



130 THE LAXD OF SUX AXD SOXG. 



Thinking of them just as when wed, 
Ere retiring to the bridal bed. 



XVIII. 

Oft I 've thought of Olympia famed, 
Her Bireno that all the world blamed ; 
Dastard the deed, in the forest dim, 
That left her sleeping away from him. 
Ah ! what human being more vile than he, 
To have thus forsaken and gone to sea? 
When returning comes the awakening tide, 
She feels for him, he's not at her side; 
Then to her feet alarmed she springs. 
Away to the water, as if on wings — 
Hark! hear her calling for his return; 
Most painful doth her bosom yearn ; 
She wild beasts in the forest fears; 
But they 're naught to the scalding tears 
Which she weeps for the faithless gone, 
Ere yet 'tis breaking of the dawn. 

XIX. 
Ah! there's many a ruthless Bireno, 
Of whom the world doth little know; 
But somebody's heart feels the spell, 
If of its sufferings it doth not tell; 
So that ^^'hen we even up the list, 
I shouldn't very technically insist. 



A REALM OF ROMANCE. I 31 

That there 's much difference in woman 
And man, when it comes to acts inhuman, 
Both along the flowery path of love 
And after the cage doth hold the dove; 
For hearts have been wounded frequently 
Before and after the nuptial ceremony; 
But we 're taught that the wickedness all 
Came from eating that apple small. 
Perchance had the apple not been ate 
Ours might have been a worse fate. 
Mighty things were then transpiring — 
]\lan had been given a mind inquiring; 
If he 'd ate of the other guarded tree 
Results might yet more painful be. 

XX. 

But who is yon heavenly herald now, 
That to Romance makes his divinest bow? 
Ah! 'tis the beautiful angel Mealdelos; 
On his bosom he wears a silver cross, 
And has come from near the throne, 
Winging all the distant way alone. 
Sent on a message of hope to man; 
But, beholding Romance with her fan 
Sitting on one of the golden parapets. 
He wonders and nears and slower flits; 
She beckons with her jeweled hand; 
At end of the veranda he doth stand, 



THE LAXD OF SUX AXD SOXG. 

A short space or two apart from her, 
A kind of silent, admiring worshipper. 

XXI. 
The angel looks submissive, meek ; 
Thus Romance findeth words to speak: 
^ 'Angel, from the skies you've come; 
Now your journey 's past and done, 
Tarry a time in this my castle court. 
If thou seekest inoffensive sport. 
I *11 call my mirthful heralds out; 
"With them thou canst romp and shout. 
Take delight from the passing time; 
The moon is in her rounded prime, 
The stars are out in bright arrav. 
Then angel tarry with us till day. 
Ah 1 the blest evening's just begun, 
And it 's full time thy wing was done 
Cutting the deep of the ether clear, 
Till morn brings thee better cheer. 
Come, if thou wilt bide for a time, 
Thee I '11 lead in the waltzing line." 

XXII. 
At first the ans^el seemed confused; 
To such talk he was all unused; 
He essayed to make fitting reply, 
But he ended with a deep-drawn sigh, 



A REALM OF ROMAXCE. 133 

Saying, ^'My task is hardly yet begun; 
I'll waltz with thee when it is done." 
She affected to be much hurt by him, 
Though he was too pure to cause a sin, 
Saying, ^'Wouldst leave a lady's charnis, 
To wander through the darksome harms? 
Then, if thou wilt hence, begone; 
I '11 sino^ alone mv evenino^ sons:, 
Xor think any more of fickle love, 
Though assailed by dozens from above — 
Those amorous gods that fain would be 
Linked in love with earth's mortality." 

XXIII. 
By this time the angel nearer drew; 
She moved his way an inch or two. 
Bright, indeed, was the golden glow 
Which from his holiness did flow; 
E 'en Romance, accustomed to look on gods. 
The radiance her very soul applauds; 
For at no time before had she known 
The joy her bosom then did own. 
She'd risen and taken the angel's hand; 
A note of reproval from the Aidenn band 
Reaches his ear, but her bewitching eyes 
Made the blest love of his bosom rise; 
He quite forgot his errand's aim. 
Such as some others I miglit name, 



134 '^^^^^ LAXD OF SUN AND SONG. 

Who 've listened to the siren's song, 
And missed forever the reahn of dawn. 

XXIV. 

The minstrels of the castle now 
Gathered round, with politest bow, 
And, tmiing up their golden harps anew, 
Away they went waltzing, two and two ; 
Romance and the angel did the same, 
Each one elated by a different flame. 
The earthly in her went out to him \ 
Shortly then he bore a drooping wing; 
The other became useless at his back ; 
He wished such appendage he did lack; 
For they were in the way of the dance, 
Although folded to the least expanse; 
He 'd need them in winging to the sky, 
But was uncertain when again he 'd try 
Their power to bear him lightly back. 
Up and on over the celestial track; 
For he had found a mate on earth 
More lovable than any heavenly birth. 

XXV. 

'Twas morning time; the angel strove 
To justify before Almighty Jove; 
A blessing he sought, with frequent sighs, 
But his petitions wouldn't upward rise. 



A REALM OF ROMAXCE. I 35 

Romance withdrew, going to her bed; 
The heart of the angel seems as lead; 
He has no use of his drooping wings, 
Thunder of heaven in his ears rings; 
He dreads the wrath of Jove to meet, 
If again he may near the golden street. 
Then out past the castle gate he went. 
And this was the burden of his lament: 
*'Ah me! alas! that I should have seen 
The dazzling beauty of that queen, 
Ere my errand was past and done. 
And I did from distant regions return." 

XXVI. 

Downcast, heavy and dejected went he, 
To southward wandering, quite wearily; 
Little he thought where he might go; 
On and on he wandered, sorrowing, slow; 
His feet scanty shod, the hard ground 
Soon with pains and aches did wound. 
One, two, three days had passed, or more; 
He came to an urchin lamenting sore, 
Because of a broken bow and string — 
He had a little short and stubbed wing, 
And an artful, knowing kind of look. 
Harder to read than any written book ; 
His artful features, all fondly fair. 
Were distorted with lines of despair. 



136 THE LAXD OF SUX AXD SOXG. 

XXVII. 

The angel pitied the little fellow, 
Whereat the urchin grew very mellow, 
Saying: ''Sir, no breakfast have I had; 
Behold, my bow and string are broken bad; 
I 've roamed all night the waste upon — 
All of my hunting friends are gone ; 
I fear rangers of this lonely wold, 
Who deeply covet and thirst for gold — 
The only gold I 've got, you can see, 
Is inlaid on my bow most beauteously. 
If thou wilt but key it up once again, 
Thou shalt have my regards for the same. 
And I '11 speak a kindly word for you 
At the first stopping place in view. 
Ah ! pray good sir, fix the broken bow, 
And mv blessins: to vou will outo;o." 

XXVIII. 
Thus the angel spake: ''To help along 
One grown weary with a boding song, 
I '11 adjust the broken bow for you; 
But first let me for a promise sue. 
That you '11 not leave me in this wild 
Until the light of day hath smiled." 
Cupid made the promise, firm and true, 
And the angel quick the work did do; 



A REALM OF ROMAXCE. I 37 

Then handed to him the mended bow again, 
As good as if it never had a strain. 
The httle fellow straightened up, 
Saying, ^^ '11 try a shot for luck." 
This no sooner said than he did part 
An arrow from it at the angel's heart, 
And went lightly winging far away, 
Saying, '^ Never again with my lady play." 

XXIX. • 

The angel, by good hap, the arrow caught, 

And to stay the little rascal sought; 

But he was much too fleet of wing 

For the speed of foot traveling; 

But the sky looked brighter overhead — 

Out of it a voice to the angel said: 

^^ Break the arrow and come with me — 

Break it into even pieces three; 

Cast the tail at little Cupid there. 

The head yon way of the lady fair; 

Retain the middle in thy right hand. 

Till thou 'st obeyed God's command; 

Then toss the last of it from thee, 

For thv winsrs will ai^^ain be free." 

XXX. 

As the voice bade, the angel did do ; 
Then he walked with patience on anew, 



138 7 HE LAXD OF SUX AXD SOXG. 

Many days and nights, thirty or more, 

Till he came to a cave with open door. 

It was located down in old jNIexico ; 

About it broke a kind of hallowed glow, 

Flashing within the vaulted space. 

Approaching, he said, ''Thou'rt given grace." 

Whereat, a soul was ushered through 

The doorway that instant into view. 

And mounted up, with wings of light. 

On and on, from fair height to height, 

Enterins: the 2:ate of heaven at last. 

'Twas a monk, who thirty years had passed, 

Oppressed with woes, within that tomb, 

Worshipping, weeping, in the gloom. 

He had omitted during life to give 

Proper praise to God while he did live; 

His spirit pressed a prayer of peace. 

From that dark bondage a long release. 

This was the mission the angel made, 

After leaving that fair, romantic maid. 

XXXI. 

Having thus obeyed God's command. 
The angel's wings the ether fanned; 
Once more, with a thrill of delight. 
He gained the fair, celestial height; 
Never so much as even looking around 
When the arrow's middle fell to the ground. 



A REALM OF ROMANCE. I 39 

Ere unfurling his wings to upward fly, 
And regain his station in the sky. 
You may well suppose he joyed to gain 
Once more a footing on heaven's plain. 
He stopped at ^'Purity Pool" to bathe, 
Ere report to the Prince he gave ; 
And when he did approach the throne, 
He faltered it forth with a moan ; 
For he remembered that he 'd disobeyed 
The holy unction, so impressively laid : 
^^Stay not till thou shalt reach the tomb 
And release the sufferer from its gloom." 

XXXII. 

Whereat the Prince of Peace did say: 
'^Mealdelos, w^herefore this long delay 
In performing my mandate, given fair, 
And submitted to thy trustful care ? 
The sufferings of the monk were severe. 
And have moved many a heartfelt tear. 
Thine own were scarcely less great, 
Because at the castle thou didst wait; 
Disobedience had surely been thy loss, 
Had I not plead for thee, Mealdelos; 
At last thou hast done my bidding well ; 
Let thy digression be a reminding spell; 
And never, never again wander astray. 
When upon thee a command I do lay ; 



I40 THE LAND OF SUN AND SONG. 

Wilt thou, fair angel, to this attend, 
And never again from thy duty wend?" 

XXXIII. 

The angel answered, ^^ Supreme, I will; 
But grant, I pray, thy blessing still." 
Then meekly the fair angel withdrew. 
And joined the myriad hosts anew; 
He was welcomed back by all the band 
To the former blisses of the land ; 
Never a question of him was asked, 
Or that his bosom be there unmasked. 
So that his brother angels could see. 
Or fair sisters, flitting about full free, 
The cause of his long-extended stay; 
For they missed his presence when away. 
Unlike fallen earthly beings, these 
Take no delight the heart to tease; 
They 'd rather aid to shield a soul 
Than see it sorrowing in yonder goal. 

XXXIV. 

But let us return to Romance again : 
Did she sorrow or suffer any pain 
Because of leading the angel astray. 
On awakening from sleep that day? 
She knew no sufferings, this fair maid, 
Gorgeously grand, beautifully arrayed ; 



A REALM OF ROMANCE, 141 

The very next eve was on the lookout 
To see who might be wandering about; 
It seemed that the fair, sunny clime 
Had an effect upon her all but divine; 
Love in her was a passion supreme, 
That moved the heart of this queen. 
Sometimes, when the heralds of heaven 
Held concerts up above at eleven, 
Forth she would wander, all unattended, 
When the moon shone divinely splendid. 
Thinking the shadow beside her falling 
A suitor in humble attitude, calling 
For this queen not to flee from him. 
Or forsake in the night shade dim. 

XXXV. 

She joyed the flowing brook to cross. 
Beholding her shadow in its silver gloss; 
For fairy hands would place the log 
Upon which her dainty feet might jog 
Securely over any water in the realm ; 
Or furnish a painted boat with helm. 
If she sounded a whistle at her wrist, 
Either in the sunshine or the mist. 
That she might gliding outward sail 
To love's shores, wdth favoring gale; 
For she knew each silvery coast. 
Frequented by romantic lovers most; 



142 THE LAXD OF SLW AXD SOXG. 

None at the castle would say her nay 
If she stayed all of the night away, 
But oft would run to meet her coming, 
With antic and frolic verv cunnins^. 

XXXVI. 

^lany a beautiful and romantic round 
The feet of this fair queen found; 
She ofttimes put the listless in a pet, 
And the over anxious in a fret: 
She refused to even flirt with them, 
If appointment she had with better men. 
Very oft the wild antelope she'd ride, 
Or stand on the buffalo's shaggy hide, 
Just as fearless as a queen of air, 
While he running groaned dumb despair; 
And if she at her station stayed 
Till the animal's fa2:o^ino^ foot delaved, 
And he fell exhausted to the ground. 
With a lithesome skip and bound 
She 'd instant touch the prairie soil, 
Calling the brute spirit from its toil 
By passing her hand before his mouth. 
With a simple motion to the south, 
When to his feet he would upspring. 
And away bounding go capering. 



A REALM OF ROMAXCE, I43 

XXXVII. 
Romance liked her frolic and fun; 
'Twas little harm when all was done; 
She often leaves the love-lorn swain 
Drooping in the middle of the plain, 
(This, I will admit, is altogether true,) 
Without a single living soul in view; 
But such is a peculiar kind of freak 
That Western wanderers ofttimes seek; 
They might not have been very pleased 
If their fancy had not been so eased. 
'Tis simple enough to talk of blame; 
They should have known from her name 
She was changeable as winds that blow — 
Fancying a white dove or black crow; 
She likes a wild and lonesome glen. 
As well as a startling episode among men, 
With a woman sometimes mixed therein. 
As a result of the first peculiar sin. 

XXXVIII. 
Now, the writer has himself seen 
Very much of this romantic queen 
Within the borders of this State, 
Both at morn and evening rather late; 
At very many times the early dews 
Have damped his patent-leather shoes, 



144 ^-^^ LAND OF SUN AND SONG. 

As he walked hand in hand with her, 
A kind of dreamy, admiring worshipper; 
And oft when the moon beamed bright 
He hath engaged her in converse hght; 
And he, this of a truth, will simply say, 
Never passed time more pleasantly away. 
Now, I hold it's all proper and well 
To court mortals for a short spell; 
Rest, and repeat the same thing o'er 
For numbers of years, one or two score; 
But Romance is a queen who may be 
Loved and courted for life, you see; 
Neither is she the first to tire 
At crossing mount, flood or fire; 
All that this lovely lady exacts of you 
Is, that to her whims you must be true. 

XXXIX. 

With candor, the writer would suggest, 
That of all gifts to mortals blest, 
None there are exceeds the fancy theme. 
The worship of such a generous queen ; 
Unlimited and royal is her reign, 
Not only over the fair Kansas plain. 
But her vast empire extends as well 
Where the breeze a sail doth swell; 
On the quiet land and stormy sea 
She makes known her pleasant decree; 



A REALM OF ROMAXCE. 1 45 

Her castle court being located here, 

The resident beside her hath much cheer ; 

For oft in the calm twilight tide 

He may resting ruminate by her side; 

Often hearing in the evening long 

Her notes of an immortal song, 

And in the music of her whisper 

An accent that his soul doth stir, 

"Which often doth forbid him rest 

Until formed into language blest. 

XL. 

Who 'd live amid those Eastern hills. 
Where long winter the love-life kills? 
Where witches are hanged for crime. 
And they divide twentieths of a dime? 
Where ugly stumps and cobble stones 
Bring from the toiler curses and groans? 
Where the rich, gay riding, float, 
And the poor drink water from the moat ? 
When we 've such plain in our clime, 
And the winters are mildly sublime; 
Where no convict by murder is killed, 
But repenting may turn meekly willed; 
Where they '11 give a nickel away. 
Not making change if all is the pay; 
Where the soil germinates any seed. 
And our products the earth might feed ; 



146 THE LAXD OF SiW AXD SOXG. 

Where paupers become princes renowned, 
Visiting watering places summers around; 
Where Romance may be courted and caught, 
If for her in youth you have sought; 
But if your morn of life 's passed by 
Without casting on her a covetous eye, 
You 'd well stay among stumps and stones 
And finish your life with the drones; 
For if you spread here a literary wing 
Late in life, it may get a clipping; 
For intellectual editors swarming thrive 
In this realm like bees in a hive. 

XLI. 
Here you may recreate where you will, 
Upon the prairie, near river or rill. 
And this fabled queen 's waiting to be 
Numbered as one of the fair company; 
For well she knows we of this land 
Akvays search and seek for her hand, 
In decking out any fair, bright design. 
Where the same needs a touching divine; 
For somehow the glamour she spreads. 
Strangely enough, turns people's heads; 
When it comes to showing what we 've done 
We 're awarded the very best premium; 
But the reason to me is simple and plain — 
Because Romance reigns o'er our plain; 



A REALM OF ROMAXCE. I4J 

And wherever our people journeying go 
They praise her, as you yery ^yell know ; 
For all, from youngest to oldest here, 
Are in loye with her, 'tis yery clear. 

XLII. 

Much of earth the writer hath roamed, 

As well as ocean when it hath foamed, 

Wending around with quizzical air. 

Dreaming of themes deliciously rare — 

Of scenery in city, village and lawn ; 

In mountain and fen ; the ocean upon ; 

In northland, where a warm, sunny ray 

Never lights the face of the day; 

South, where blood in the vein boils 

As a reward for the tourist's toils; 

In short I 've rambled much up and down. 

Roving, ruminating, from sunup to sundown ; 

In the night loving, laughing along. 

Here and there, with the big throng; 

But through all of it, mark me say, 

I 've never known as pleasant a ray 

From the bright blest sun ever sped 

As in Kansas falls fair on the head. 

XLIII. 

Ah ! tell me not of your Italian clime ; 
Kansas doth surpass it every time. 



148 THE LAXD OF SIW AXD SOXG. 

Both in the mild salubrity of air 
And uniformity of its seasons fair; 
Its pleasure walks, each shady grove, 
Where fond Love and Romance rove; 
The sun glints all with a glossy gleam. 
Rill and ripple with a silvery beam. 
Here birds of plumage, golden hued, 
Tenderly defend each little brood; 
Each animal, all of the furry kind. 
Doth hold the same harmonious mind; 
For they wend and herd together, 
The same as birds of one feather, 
PeacefuUv throus^h the flowerv dells. 
Drinking from the springing wells. 
Which at ^■aried intervals abound, 
In this realm, this paradise of ground. 

XLIV. 
It would make a book with more in 't 
Than any three publishers could print. 
To set forth all there is to say 
Of this blest, beautiful land to-day; 
So, dear reader, if you do not find 
That which most interests your mind 
Fairly put down and recorded here. 
Don't turn away with a haughty sneer; 
Pray remember every word will not rhyme, 
And that mortal hasn't eternal time, 



A REALM OF ROMAXCE. 1 49 

Of life lease a never-ending share; 
That the ladies must have some care, 
As the days and weeks go gliding by — 
If not, the luster fades from the eye, 
The sweet cadence from the voice, 
And so they wither up from choice. 
As a kind of impressive, silent spite 
Against him who'd do nothing but write; 
And often a thought would come, 
Passing away ere its writing was done. 
However, who would better the theme, 
Pray let such rhymings fair be seen; 
For this is about the surest test. 
To determine what's with life blest — 
Which manuscript, thrown to the breeze. 
Will avoid death when the critics sneeze. 

XLV. 

Then, again, there are times, you know. 
When mighty brain thoughts flow, 
Madly rushing like a torrent along, 
And a writer can't capture the throng; 
And when the sweeping swell is past. 
In sight there are drifts of the blast. 
True, he may wend round o'er the coast. 
Choosing that which pleases the most; 
Or, if his heart throbbings are cold 
As those of numberless critics untold. 



150 THE LAXD OF SUN AND SONG. 

He may string together some lines, 
In which logic prominently shines, 
And reason holds high, sweeping reign, 
In the broad empire of a big brain — 
With Romance run away to the wood. 
Starving for some more delicate food. 
So, you see, it isn't as easy to tell 
What work '11 live as it is to spell; 
And I fancy m.any people there are 
Who spell qitarij with only one r. 

XLVI. 
But, as the lamp is getting rather low. 
And Cupid is stringing up his bow 
For some mixed and merry work to do. 
In the next part I present to you ; 
And, as it is a peculiar kind of theme. 
Where heart and headwork may be seen; 
Where sound and sense together blend; 
AVhere both merriment and misery lend 
Their joint and united aid to perplex 
The loves and the larks of the sex, 
I 'd best retire for some sweet repose, 
AVhile here this canto I do close. 



LOVES AND LARKS OF THE STATE. 



CANTO FIFTH. 



LOVES AND LARKS OF THE STATE. 



I. 

Co^iE ye gods, ye great Apollo ! 
Let eloquence now unbounded flow; 
For love is the blest theme I sing — 
All others to the winds I 'd fling. 
Let the thrill of a sweet love refrain 
Waken each slumberous fibre of my brain; 
For of all gifts God gave to mortals, 
The love gift them very far excels ; 
For no fortune's hard, ruthless fate 
Can its intensity one whit abate, 
When the flame comes burning bright 
From those Aidenn shores of light — 
Realms where, gentle as cooing dove, 
Angels and seraphim together love. 

II. 

Ye stern ]\Iars and 2:entle, lovinof Venus, 
I pray ye come, assist me now in this; 
For like you experienced lovers may 
Deign to aid a mateless lover's lay, 
With some celestial thoughts of yore, 
When love was all your stock and store: 
(155) 



156 THE LAND OF SLW AND SONG. 

AVhen battles in the clouds were planned 
By renowned warriors, for a lady's hand, 
Who would risk each heavenly hope. 
With some bright goddess to elope 
Hence to outward verge of the clouds, 
Whose dark and distant rolling shrouds 
Hide from the great God's immediate view 
Many things that celestial lovers do. 

III. 

Love is the moving law of heaven, 
And a fairer never forth was given, 
From any ruler or lawgiver's hand. 
To distant isle, desert or ocean strand. 
'Tis love that moves the world below. 
And the bright angels, as off they go. 
On varied errands of blest mercy sent 
To give to each mortal a better bent. 
There is no place where love is dead; 
Indeed, it hath been quite often said. 
That love of a dark and envious will 
Doth the breasts of all devils fill, 
AVhich makes them brooding, envious, hate. 
Rather than be sorry for their ill fate. 

IV. 
But, then, 'tis of love and larks I now 
Make to you, reader, my politest bow; 



LOVES AXD LARKS OF THE STATE. 157 

For this favored Kansas land excels 
Both mountain tops and shaded dells, 
For the being, life and growth of loves — 
For the lithesome larks of maids and doves; 
Because, you know, both old and young 
Feel the glow of each reviving sun; 
And more, they never seem to tire 
Replacing fresh fagots on the fire ; 
Fitful, forward, ardent is each passion — 
There are none here to lay the lash on; 
Love is as free as the air we breathe 
From branches of palm-leaved trees; 
Indeed, almost any one here may love — 
Messengers set the example from above. 

V. 
Ah ! mayhap you smile to even think 
That I should waste paper and ink 
In writing down such simple thoughts, 
Which -nothing but the manuscript blots; 
I suppose you would seek to maintain 
That no fair ladder reaches this plain; 
That angels in loneliness of soul 
Love not mortals in this blest goal. 
When there are many beings bright 
Pining for love in the realms of light; 
And more suited, you think, is the place 
There the loves of heaven to chase. 



I 5 8 THE LAXD OF SUX AXD SOXG. 

Yes, quite true, but pray unto me hark — 
This reahn 's more fitted for a lark; 
And love without a lark seems to me 
Like eating leaves, with fruit on the tree. 

VI. 

Kind reader, I can't help your thought; 
Here, once again, I the paper do blot; 
For I stoutly assert and maintain 
A golden ladder reaches this plain; 
That oft I 've seen the rungs upon 
Some visitant from the land of dawn, 
Either going up or descending here, 
To gain from mortals some blest cheer; 
For this, you know, is central station, 
Of the United States and all creation; 
And why shouldn't celestial favors be 
Shown to us for our great prosperity. 
Both in the crops we yearly reap 
And the pleasures each doth seek? 

VTT. 

I may strive to convince you in vain, 
For niany most skeptical will remain; 
It matters not how positive the proof, 
They would much rather stand aloof 
Than to go with the believing crowd 
Down to death and the coffin shroud; 



LOVES AXD LARKS OF THE STATE. I 59 

No matter if they waken on another morn, 
Feeling quite lonely, forsaken, forlorn ; 
If they '11 not believe eternal things. 
Why should they a rhymer when he sing 
Especially of anything light as loves 
Or its larks, or the cooing of doves? 
Yes, true enough, how can he expect 
To convince such men of intellect, 
That a fair ladder runs to this plain, 
Straight, direct, from the heavenly lane? 

YIII. 
But, if the wise won't read my song, 
I will scatter it the simple among; 
For it 's- exceedingly pleasing to me 
To hold such a bright, fond revery; 
I care not if the lords of this life 
Fail in settling their brain strife. 
By believing a ladder could reach 
From here to the far celestial beach; 
And that a delicate angel's feet 
Wouldn't with many punishments meet, 
Stepping up or down, a rung at a time, 
Between this and the celestial clime, 
Better you think it would be to wing 
Than do any such a foolish thing. 



l6o THE LAXD OF SUX AXD SOXG, 

IX. 

Well, now, didn't Jacob once truly see 
Angels passing over a ladder free, 
Right between this earth and heaven, 
Just at the time in the Bible given? 
And do you think that land could well 
Keep in the lead of us all this spell ? 
Nay, nay, if no celestial architect 
Could frame a ladder circumspect, 
Which would extend to these shores 
From the distant Aidenn doors, 
Those shining heralds of the dawn 
To mingle earth's best mortals among, 
It wouldn't take long to find a man 
To construct one on the latest j^lan; 
For we have every tradesman here 
That 's known to any other sphere — 
Ingenious, trustful, skilled, as well ; 
Of this you may depend on what I tell. 

X. 

But perhaps you 'd much rather care 
To have me prove the proposition fair. 
Well, to those souls that can see, 
It is of no very great difficulty, 
To behold a shining ladder very tall, 
Filled with angels and genii small. 



LOVES AND LARKS OF THE STATE. l6l 

Under strict orders from the King above 
To keep up intercourse of gentle love. 
For it is said He would much rather 
Many a section of outdoor weather 
Would be taken from His chart divine 
Than one acre of the Kansas clime; 
Because every reform has its birth 
In this bright, golden spot of earth; 
And when once we 've started the ball 
We give it never any rest at all; 
Vigorous kickers can't kick it back, 
For that isn't the progressive track; 
And progress is the only car we ride, 
As all the great world has descried. 

XI. 

So, taking this hasty view of the whole^ 
I don't think it strange, upon my soul. 
That a golden ladder there should be 
Connected fair with this realm free, 
Over which any number of us can go, 
Giving attention to the way, you know; 
For it 's not expected one could climb 
Who knew about uprising never a line; 
Or that angels could, when day is done, 
Step by step, down the ladder run. 
Without giving the slighest heed 
Which foot ought to be in the lead; 



I 62 THE LAXD OF SUX AXD SONG. 

Or upon what kind of mission bent — - 
Whether prompted by good or bad intent; 
For of this we very well understand, 
Angels and mortals are under command 
Of a Captain who the way prescribes, 
Ruling the winds, the rivers, the tides; 
Marking well all of our mortal moves, 
To give good heed us it much behooves ; 
Or when part way up the ladder a fall 
Will announce contact with this ball; 
Should an angel o'erstay his time, 
Soon he cannot the fair ladder climb; 
Now of this wise arrangement we must 
Bespeak it altogether right and just. 

XII. 
Having established the ladder fair, 
I shall introduce some forms of air; 
Some earthly lovers, impulsive, true ; 
Their loves I shall disclose to you, 
Intermixed with now and then a lark, 
As the fancy strikes me, from my bark. 
Which is floating on the tide of time, 
Peacefully through this flowery clime. 
Once in a while a lady radiantly fair 
I greet beside the flowing water there. 
Who wanders along the shores to see 
The beautiful, bright blushing lily; 



LOVES AXD LARKS OF THE STATE, 1 65 

Or, mayhap, who sails the silvery tide, 

Without a mate seated by her side. 

Ofttimes, fairly perched, a cooing dove 

Will discourse from the bowsprit of love. 

Such a tender, charming, sweet refrain 

That its accents fill all my brain; 

Oft some dove will plagiarize a voice 

And tell me many things from choice; 

Now I 'm waiting for such a dove to come — 

There, one is flitting through the sun ; 

She is spotless as the snow is white. 

And on the bows of my boat doth alight; 

This is one of the blest lays she sings, 

While I admire her beautiful wings: 

XIII. 

THE DOVE SINGS. 

^'Glad, indeed, I am to greet you here] 
Mortal, much, very much was my fear 
Lest no one waiting I should find. 
To write down the thoughts of my miind; 
For this is the best of all my lays, 
Suno^ where'er mv wearv wino: stravs. 
One year ago an angel from heaven's gate 
Was sent to the Kansas temperance State, 
And winging the weary way so far 
He never paused to drink at any star; 



164 THE LAXD OF SUX AXD SOXG. 

Therefore, to revive his drooping mood, 
He longing looked for some porter good ; 
But not a single drop in all the State 
Could he beg or even buy at any rate ; 
So, after many days in useless search, 
He cut a cane from the limb of a birch. 
And wandered round, like a pilgrim good 
On his way to tlie Mecca brotherhood; 
Listless, indifferent to his mission, 
To report the beauties of our sun; 
For much of its mildness had been heard 
Discoursed above by rapt and holy word. 
Reader, remember that his wings were worn. 
Some of the largest quills were torn 
With slips he made along the ladder tall, 
Just saving himself from many a fall; 
Besides, searching for this fair wine 
"Was contrary to his orders divine; 
But then the angel didn't much care, 
Just so he regained heaven in the air. 

XIV. 
^^Well, as the time chanced to be 
In the summer season, bright and merry. 
The angel wandered far hence alone 
And saw the wood nymph on her throne, 
Just in the edge of a laurel grove. 
Where a spring of crystal water hove, 



LOVES AND LARKS OF THE STATE. 1 65 

Bubbling up very beautifully about; 
The queen from her temple looked out 
And became very much joyed to see 
In her grounds such fair company. 
The queen instant left her throne, 
And gave the angel ' greeting home ; ' 
A glass she had her fairies bring 
Of sparkling water from the spring; 
Then she gave the angel it to drink; 
Thereupon, quick as the shortest wink, 
His drooping spirits all revived again; 
He felt the witchery of love's pain. 
As the fairies handed the queen the glass 
Refilled, in which no impurity did pass. 

XV. 

' ' The queen, holding up to the sun 
A drop between her finger and thumb. 
Told the angel that God's fair wells 
No purer beverage gives to earth's dells^ 
Than the blest, upspringing water there. 
Which was free for every one to share; 
That ' nothing here to stain the soul 
Doth with our rippling rivulets roll. 
A brighter clime, dear angel, hast thou 
Ever seen than I show to thee now. 
In all thy wendings from heaven away? 
If thou hast, then tell it me, pray; 



I 66 THE LAXD OF SUX AXD SOXG. 

For all travelers readily concede 
This Kansas land the fairest mead 
Lying between the two oceans wide, 
AVhich other great continents divide.' 
The queen's manner was so very fair 
That the angel loved her unaware, 
And lingered round about the spring 
^lany days both bright and darkling; 
She neglected the duties of her throne, 
For she too was in love, I must own. 
Many and long, delightful hours they 
Would chatting sit or together stray 
Through groves of greenest foliage ; 
Or bv the flowino^ brooklet's edsre 
Look upon their shadows in the tide. 
As the clear ripples did onward glide, 
Bearincr their si2:hs and smiles alonsr 
For judgment in the realm of dawn. 

XVI. 

**Her subjects discontented became; 
!Manv murmurs of ansrer and of blame 
Were heard within her kingdom grand; 
But still she held to her angel's hand ; 
Therefore upon a lark she would go, 
For that was the way her love did flow. 
One fair morn, when the sun was up, 
They each drank from a silver cup 



LOVES AXD LARKS OF THE STATE. 1 67 

A last draught of the waters there, 
Then to a journey they did repair, 
Hence to a smiling prairie grove. 
Where the winds used to frisking rove. 
Located in the western part of the State, 
AVhere abundance of everything did wait 
For all who 'd plow and sow the seed, 
On that fair, fertile Kansas mead. 

xvn. 

*' These two larking lovers happy were. 
When once relieved from the toilsome care 
Of journeying for many and many a day. 
Over the long, unpeopled, level way; 
Of course, the angel held regrets, 
That sometimes bravest mortal frets; 
She would often think of her throne. 
With a sigh that seemed like a moan; 
But such blest blisses all were past; 
They must face life's realities at last; 
So thev built a little cabin small — 
It was a ^'dug out," with no floor at all 
Save the one which nature furnished, 
With soil and sand and pebble burnished. 

XVIII. 
^'But the daily detail of their lives 
I leave to garrulous, neighborhood wives; 



1 68 THE LAXD OF SUX AXD SOXG. 

Suffice it to say, children came along 
As Time sang the notes of his song; 
So that it happened, in after years, 
A race there sprang from the spheres, 
Connected with this round of life; 
For that angel had a mortal wife; 
And this is the simple reason why 
Your Kansas population stands so high; 
Easy it is to see that the divine. 
When mingled with the human kin, 
Brings forth a posterity very fair; 
And of its benefits all may share; 
For the land is broad enough to-day 
That all can mingling in it stray. 

XIX. 
^'For the good work the angel had done. 
In giving offspring to the land of sun. 
He was fors^iven when he came to die, 
Regaining his station in the sky; 
Although the great heavenly court 
Sent another for the temperance report ; 
Because, you see that Ruler of Air 
Held for prohibition quite a decided care ; 
That Sovereign proposed to understand 
Just how things were run in this land. 
The queen died, as other mortals do, 
As soon as her earthlv life was through ; 



LOVES AND LARKS OF THE STATE, 1 69 

But peaceful, indeed, was her pillow, 
For she ' d done a good work here below ; 
And it is reported, on authority good. 
That, admitted to the bright angelhood, 
With others she will pass therein, 
Adjudged by the King free of sin; 
So, my friend, I bid you now good day; 
I have some work that leads me away." 

XX. 

At this the dove upraised its wings. 
And went circling in winding rings, 
Away through the atmosphere bright; 
I gazing sat till it was out of sight; 
Dreamy,, idle, listless was my mood ; 
My boat unguided sped many a rood; 
Till, passing a cave where a wizard dwells. 
He hailed me with his witchery spells; 
His look was ancient, with beard of gray, 
But there was something pleasant, ay. 
In the expression of his ruddy face; 
His step was light and full of grace; 
He danced a kind of portly jubilee. 
To behold the tide onward bear me; 
He capered like a colt on the strand; 
He wildly beckoned with his hand; 
He bounded into my boat and rode along. 
And this was the purport of his song: 



I70 THE LAND OF SUN AND SONG. 

XXI. 
WIZARD Jake's song. 
^^ Mortal, fair indeed is the sunny day — 
Fair and sparkling is the water's spray; 
Fair the realm you 're floating through, 
So a fair tale I will tell to you. 
Many years since a lady love I had; 
Ah, me ! she made my young bosom glad ; 
Her name was Martha Merilla Downs; 
Mine, Jacob Ross, with ten thousand pounds; 
In Connecticut she gave her name for mine; 
We heard so much of the Kansas clime, 
That upon one spring day very fair 
We got our trinkets together there, 
And in a wagon with a covered sail 
We started this faii* realm to hail. 

XXII. 

^'Well, after many weeks of weary toil, 
We reached the Kansas fertile soil; 
I had nearly completed a cosy home. 
When one morn I found myself alone; 
All the trace which she left behind 
Was a note, saying, to her romantic mind 
She had found a naiad lover small; 
But he knew the art of love withal ; 
And so she had taken up with him, 
Just to satisfy his persistent whim. 



LOVES AND LARKS OF THE STATE. 171 

The note said it was no use to look, 
Because she had me forever shook; 
However, I left everything behind, 
And went on pilgrimage her to find. 

XXIII. 
'^Long and wearily I wandered round, 
But never a trace of them I found; 
But by good hap I came upon yon cave; 
Thirty years I 've watched by the wave. 
Hoping to behold her and him pass, 
For everything is reflected as in a glass 
In these pure, flowing waters here. 
By the suns of this beautiful sphere; 
Neither on a fair nor yet cloudy day 
Have they passed along this water's way; 
But, stranger, I do believe at night. 
When asleep, they've passed my sight; 
And now I fain would ride with you 
Till once I have them full in view; 
For every other night all the fates 
Make me dream that below she waits, 
Within a bower of leaves quite green, 
Near the side of this flowing stream; 
And I have strong faith to believe 
Sometimes for me she yet doth grieve; 
So, pray let me stand in your boat, 
That I objects on either hand may note ; 



172 THE LAND OF SUN AND SOXG. 

For the moment the bower 's in sight, 
Bounding onto the beach, I will alight. 

XXIV. 

'^Boatman, this is a wondrous clime; 
Bright scenes along the river shine; 
We must have floated many leagues on 
Since first I began my rambling song; 
For the current is gliding rapidly 
Hence to the waters of a shoreless sea; 
Much in my more youthful days I read 
Of that being a voyage which the dead 
Must take from these sands of time; 
Ah! I wonder if she's gone to that clime. 
Are all my dreams quite foundationless? 
Must this bosom meet more distress? 
Ho, there! what's yonder little chap 
Engaged in save drinking maple sap ? 
And that woman at the kettle there — 
Hi! ho! it is my darling Merilla fair; 
Good bve." And he bounded on the beach, 
Giving a fearful kind of screech; 
Wildly running, like one possessed. 
He clasped his Merilla to his breast. 

XXV. 

Now they both were older, changed, 
But their tongues at random ranged, 



LOVES AND LARKS OF TLLE STATE. I 73 

About the varied mishaps of his life, 
And thirty years passed as a naiad's wife; 
They told of what they each had seen, 
Both in the sun and moonlight's beam; 
Of course they made up, as such do, 
Who ever the marital affections knew. 
It broke in twain the little naiad's heart; 
Ah! 'twas wrong, man and wife to part; 
He lonely grieved, 'tis said, awhile. 
From deep regret of his wicked guile; 
From an ancient sort of naiad respect 
They did at his grave a bush erect; 
And some one passing wrote the line, 
^^ Naiad still for a lark doth pine." 

XXVI. 

The wizard and his very fickle wife 
Pledged anew their best vows of life; 
They really acted like a new-made pair, 
While I -held the boat with paddle there 
A short time, to see what I might see, 
Of loving life and matrimonial felicity. 
Methought, what can he see in her eyes? 
She's nearly worthless as a prize; 
But such are the larks of this State 
That love don't yield to any fate; 
And wrongs are always righted here 
So affectionately, it's really very queer; 



1 74 THE LAXD OF SUX AND SONG. 

No person can long hold a spite 
In this loved realm of sunny light; 
For cheeks turn to peach-tree blooms, 
Full of 'witching beauty and perfumes; 
'Tis the same with the young or old, 
A commodity worth more than gold ; 
Here a lark is a most lovely sight. 
That many enjoy 'neath the moonlight. 

XXVII. 

But I leave the wizard and his wife, 
And again pursue the voyage of life; 
My boat once more is gliding away, 
While I meditate on the wizard's lay. 
Some forty-two hours passed, or more : 
I behold a maid upon the lee shore ; 
And I steer my boat there beside, 
To learn why she waits by the tide; 
Quite timid indeed she doth screen 
Her bosom, so it shall not be seen ; 
While much bolder than she, I ask 
The nature of her lonely task. 

XXVIII. 
She sees something pleasant in my eye, 
And promptly deigns to make reply: 
''Sir, I've lost a little brownie good, 
From the fair skirts of yonder wood; 



LOVES AXD LARKS OF THE STATE. I 75 

So here I 'm looking by the tide, 
If his footprints may be descried; 
For we had a word or two, you see, 
And it turned the head of my brov.^nie 
So he ran away with hasty speed, 
And I my dear httle brownie need 
For he is my Httle lover, you know 
And has been these ten years or so; 
When I was twelve it first begun. 
And our loves and larks have run 
Since then gently and smoothly on. 
Until he heard a katydid's song; 
I fear he 's either in the river now 
Or making to katydid a love bow." 

XXIX. 

Said I: ''What use is a brownie to you? 
Why not get a husband, constant, true — 
One that understands the art of love. 
And will call you duck, darling, dove? 
I 'd just let the little brownie go, 
If I were you; I surely would, I know. 
Come, fair one, step into my boat — 
I'll show you how it will sailing float; 
And as we glide smoothly, fair along^ 
I '11 sing to you a tender love song, 
Which I know will cheer you more 
Than such brownies a half a score; 



176 THE LAND OF SUN AND SONG. 

For once I learned the art of love 
From a blest angel's whisper, up above; 
If you 'd like I '11 tell it to you 
When the stars shine on the dew." 

XXX. 

She replied: ^^ Thank you, my dear sir; 
But I must not from this place stir; 
For I think my brownie will be back; 
To yon grove I'll carry him in my sack; 
And when once again I have him there 
We will be the most loving pair 
That ever any live mortal did see; 
For I love, and brownie loves me. 
I suppose brownie is now on a lark, 
But he'll come back when 'tis dark; 
'Tis no kind of use to ask me away; 
Not a single word that you can say 
Will take me from my brownie here, 
For he to me is grown so very dear ; 
Then, too, this Kansas clime so free 
Tells me brownie '11 come back to me." 

XXXI. 

*^Well, if you will not go," said I, 
'^For a sail in my best boat to try, 
I must turn its prow adown the stream 
And leave you with your brownie mean"- 



LOVES AXD LARKS OF THE STATE. 1 77 

"Hold/' said she, '^I won't hear a word — 
I '11 not stand to hear brownie slurred, 
For he's the brightest little fellow — 
Ho there, Brownie ! hi, ho, halloo ! 
You see I knew he 'd come back again, 
And relieve my heart of this pain. 
]\Ir. Boatman, I bid you now good day; 
You can go gliding adown upon your way; 
Brownie and I will off to the grove. 
And lark with the loves of Jove." 



XXXII. 

Lightly they went bounding then, 
While I pursued my voyage again, 
Wondering what in the Kansas land 
Binds all lovers with such a band; 
For 'tis the same with men and maids 
As fays and brownies in the shades; 
Xo argument which one may adduce 
Is of the slightest sort of use, 
^Measured against the deep love strain 
Which thrills the blood of every vein, 
That crosses the Kansas eastern line, 
And lives one minute in this clime; 
Here even the dogs at night will bark 
And go running away on a lark. 



1/8 THE LAXD OF SUy AND SOXG. 

XXXIII. 

But I must give heed to the stream 
As well as this charming love dream; 
For there might be whirlpools along 
Which would end the singer and song; 
And as he wants these lines to live 
An eye to the stream he will give, 
While with the other set to the land 
We mav note larks alonsf the strand — 
Ah! there an angel waits by the tide; 
I wonder if he hasn't my boat descried. 
For, mayhap, weary now is his wing. 
And if I give him a ride he will sing ; 
He 's one of the fairest of the fair 
Who hold bright station in the air ; 
He seems to be viewing now his face 
There in that clear, rippleless place; 
I guess I '11 ask him what he sees — 
Whether 'tis fishes or a swarm of bees; 
For his eyes must be keenly bright, 
Having looked upon celestial light. 

XXXIV. 

''Well, wondrously fair angel," said I, 
Bringing my boat to his shore anigh, 
''What's under the water now you see, 
Instead of booking straight at me?" 



LOVES A. YD LARKS OF THE STATE. I 79 

Thereupon the angel lifted his eyes, 
And making a motion toward the skies, 
Said, looking quite meekly at my face, 
''I've lost my crown in this place; 
It fell right into the water there, 
As yon maiden threw a kiss in the air; 
For I caught the kiss in my hand 
As I gained the marge of the strand; 
I turned my head, at the maid to look. 
And no caution to my crown I took; 
The first thing I heard was a splash. 
And it sank 'neath the water in a flash; 
Oh ! kind sir, if you can bring it to me, 
I will plead your cause in eternity; 
For it never will do to backward go 
Bareheaded, just this way, you know ; 
And a crown is a fair, bright thing. 
That can't be picked up on the wing; 
Those who have them seldom if ever. 
Like me, drop one in passing a river. ' ' 

XXXV. 

Said I, "Let's ask the maid to come 
And behold the mischief she has done." 
Then, standing fairly up in my boat, 
I unbuttoned and loosened my coat, 
In order to give my voice full play. 
While these pathetic words I did say: 



I 80 THE LAXD OF SUX AXD SOXG. 

^^Ho, maiden! the mischief of that kiss 
Caused the angel his crown to miss; 
It is sunken right in the waters here : 
Pray hasten, come, this moment, near, 
And drive from the an2:el everv doubt ; 
I '11 fish from the water the crown out; 
For with the rake you rake the hay, 
'Twill reach the river bottom, ay; 
Oh, hasten ! and bring the rake along, 
For I must upon my voyage be gone." 

XXXVI. 
The maiden clapped her hands in glee, 
And threw these mocking words at me: 
^^Sir, my task is to rake this hay, 
Rather than run at everybody's say. 
Simple the angel was to catch the kiss, 
For it was thrown at my little Diss — 
A fay that 's very fond and kind. 
And suited exactly to my mind, 
AVho went winging off toward the lane 
As the foolish angel this way came. 
If in the river he 's lost his crown, 
Let him dive for it straight down; 
For an angel fair that can't do that 
I wouldn't give of my hands a pat; 
Or, if he 's timid and durst not dive. 
Boatman, you might enter the watery hive, 



LOVES AXD LARKS OF THE STATE. I Si 

Just to accommodate his heavenly whims; 
Perhaps he'll speak a word for your sins.". 

XXXVII. 

I looked at the angel j he looked at me ; 
No hope in the maiden could we see; 
But at the bottom of the river there 
I beheld the crown all shining fair. 
So partly undressing, I made a plunge, 
Some vigorous kicks and quite a lunge, 
And got upon that rare crown of gold 
A safe, secure and steadfast hold; 
Then coming at the surface into view, 
The crown to the bright angel I threw; 
He placed' it quickly upon his head, 
And these were the loving words he said, 
As I clambered back into my boat, 
Putting on vest, hat, boots and coat : 
''Thank you, boatman, for your pains; 
For you I'll speak on the heavenly plains; 
But for the maiden yonder raking hay 
Xot so much as a single word will I say. 
I really believe of your race the men 
Have much better hearts than the women. 
Xow I can wing my way to paradise back; 
But for you this crown I should lack; 
For water, you know, is a queer element. 
Into which an ans^el never vet went." 



I 82 THE LAXD OF SUX AXD SOXG. 

XXXVIII. 
''No thanks," said I, ''to me are due 
From an angel bright the same as you; 
For generous, fair, I ahvays wish to be, 
And accommodatingly kind you see; 
Besides, I shall feel better on my way, 
Floating amid the foam-rippled spray, 
To feel that you can enter the fold, 
Happy and grand with your crown of gold. 
But, angel, one word of caution to you: 
Beware winging the Kansas clime through; 
Keep a cautiously-close and wary eye 
Upon your shining pathway in the sky; 
For I have often heard spoken here 
Much of the love witchery of this sphere. 
Although I seldom if ever let a dame 
Take me a love jaunt o'er the plain; 
Neither do I let a maiden turn my boat 
From the best water in which to float ; 
But now my voyage has been delayed. 
It is time my farewell had been said; 
Let yonder maiden rake her prairie hay — 
Angel, in pardon a word for me say, 
AVhile I go floating down the stream. 
To behold what further may be seen." 

XXXIX. 

Then the fair angel said to me, ''Adieu; 
In heaven I'll surely remember you;" 



LOVES AXD LARKS OF THE STATE. I 83 

And upon his beautiful wings of light 
He arose and floated out of sidit ; 
But somehow I fancied adown the stream 
]\Iy boat glided in a brighter beam. 
For having given to the angel's hold 
That beautiful crown of shining gold, 
Because something at my heart, you see, 
^lade me dream of peaceful tranquillity. 
The shades of night were falling round; 
Soon I was sleeping in peace profound, 
For bright genii of the blest skies 
Wouldn't let my guarded boat capsize; 
It sped secure and safely sailing on, 
While I awoke with the coming dawn. 

XL. 

A lave and drink of the waters rare, 
A breath or two of the Kansas air, 
Was all the breakfast that I needed; 
For such I seldom if ever heeded 
If there was any fair thing in view — 
A maiden, an angel, or a drop of dew. 
However, still floating with the gale 
I came to a most lovely diamond vale, 
Whose beautiful, beaming lusters were 
Being gathered by four maidens fair; 
They waved their snowy hands at me; 
Nowhere such a lovely sight you'd see; 



I 84 THE LAXD OF SLW AXD SOXG. 

Had there been but one blest form 
I had not been caught in the storm, 
Of which in another place I '11 tell, 
After talking of these maids a spell. 

XLI. 
I steered my boat to the western bank ; 
Anchoring it to the beach with a plank, 
I stepped light and lordly upon shore, 
Just to view these fair maidens o'er. 
Ah! they were lovely as you'd wish to see; 
They instant came trooping toward me; 
Each of them had diamonds in her hair 
And fastened upon her robes with care; 
Diamonds everywhere about were placed; 
Diamond light each fair form graced ; 
They each seemed a diamond in my eye; 
I looked and longed and gave a sigh. 
Saying, ^^ Maidens, fair indeed you seem! 
Could you help me with my poet dream? 
For surely the love of all your breasts 
Would make it stand the critic tests. 
And give deathless immortality to my song 
In this glittering diamond vale of dawn." 

XLII. 
At this the leader of the maidens four 
Then scanned me very closely o'er. 



LOVES AXD LARKS OF THE STATE. I 85 

And replied: ''Please, sir, I'll say to you, 
To our diamonds we will be ever true; 
For each eventide, as we do glean, 
Bounding through the fair moonbeam 
Come four little elfin pages round. 
Whom we each love with love profound ; 
And in return for affection's game 
Our little elfs give us much gain; 
A paradise they 're building to our mind, 
With the diamonds that here we find. 
Within the center of the Kansas land. 
With plenty, prosperity on every hand ; 
So you see a lone boatman for four 
Would make three of us pine for more; 
I guess we '11 stay in our diamond vale, 
And let vou alone down the river sail." 

XLIII. 
The charming speaker was hardly done 
When a -dark cloud obscured the sun; 
Thereupon, as I turned about to look, 
A landward-rolling wavelet my boat took, 
And sent it dashing far away from me; 
The storm fiends danced about in glee; 
The rain and hail and tempest blew; 
Ah ! then I didn't know what to do. 
So I called on the maidens to come 
And give me of their assistance some; 



I 86 THE LAND OF SUN AND SONG. 

But each one of them had fled away; 
Their elfin lovers held all the sway; 
For to me they repeated this by rote: 
''Boatman, if you'd kept in your boat, 
And let our lady loves entirely alone, 
You 'd not now have to bitterly moan. 
Like a wall-eyed loon up a tree. 
For help which you never can see ; 
Glad we are — 'tis good enough for you — 
Your pleasant voyaging now is through!" 

XLIV. 
Their elfin voices fell with the gale; 
Another one of my Muses bade me ''Hail,'* 
Showing the scroll of another theme ; 
Then, quick as the thought of a dream, 
I Avas wafted away to a beautiful lawn ; 
But in another canto I '11 tell my song. 
Forgetting the diamond beauties if I can. 
As well as each little, elfish man. 



AN EDEN FAIRER THAN THAT OF OLD, 



CANTO SIXTH, 



AN EDEN FAIRER THAN THAT OF OLD. 



I. 

Ix the Holy Bible, that best of books 
Into which any mortal ever looks — 
Back there in Genesis, I think it is, 
There's a history something like this: 
A mist arose which gave rainfall around ; 
God made man of the dust of the ground, 
Breathed into his nostrils breath of life, 
Gave him a woman called Eve for a wife ; 
And if I 've not read that sketch amiss 
He did quite considerable more than this; 
He planned and planted a garden very fair. 
In the midst of the eastern world somewhere; 
He gave these two fruit to feed oA; 
This beautiful place He called Eden; 
Putting the man and woman therein 
Free and clear of all taint of sin. 

II. 

Well, one day, as chance there was had, 
A serpent came which was very bad; 
He noted a light in the woman's eye, 
And with a sort of timid lover's sigh 
(19O 



192 THE LAND OF SUN AND SONG. 

He began a meek and whining dole 
Concerning good and evil of the soul ; 
Then, pointing to an apple on a tree, 
He said, '^Come, eat, and be a deity." 
When the woman saw 'twas fit for food 
The temptation she no longer withstood. 
Notwithstanding she and her only mate 
Were ordered by the King of the Garden great 
To let that one tree entirely alone, 
Or them in the garden He 'd disown. 

III. 

Eve, like any woman, wanted her way, 
And, of course, heeded the serpent's say; 
So she reached forth her delicate hand 
For the fruit that tainted all the land; 
Then right into the sin-cursed thing 
She buried her pearly teeth, munching 
The juicy substance between her jaw, 
While all the gods looked down in awe. 
She felt not the sting of the fruit tasted, 
Nor realized the life lease she wasted; 
The serpent grinning slid softly away 
Just as the man came up that wa\'; 
But the witchery of the woman bland 
This really good man could not withstand, 
For she offered him some fruit, you see, 
From that self-same beautiful tree; 



AjV EDEN FAIRER THAN THAT OF OLD. 1 93 

And, not wanting to be by her outdone 
In knowledge, why, he partook of some. 
Ah ! Adam, that was a very great mistake ; 
Out of the clouds a voice of anger spake, 
Bidding them go from the garden there. 
As a wicked, w^orthless, wanton pair. 

IV. 

Reader, you know how the story runs — 
They went away, had daughters and sons : 
Sought to till the grown-cursed soil — 
'Twas up-hill business and heavy toil; 
However, from the mishaps of that place 
There has sprung up quite an extensive race — 
A struggling, bustling, jostling fold. 
Bent on getting crowns as Avell as gold; 
All is hurly-burly, flurry, rush and run. 
From the morning till going down of sun ; 
Still eating much forbidden fruit. 
And emphatically saying they ^'didn't do't;" 
Bent upon gaining the earthly prize 
Though they miss the station in the skies. 

V. 

Now, of course. Eve's was a mighty sin. 
And such a thing should never have been; 
It never would have been, no doubt. 
If some one hadn't let that serpent out. 



194 ^-^^^ LAXD OF SL\Y AND SOXG. 

But then the folly of the first fall 
Doesn't surpass us in this age at all; 
That is, those people of other lands — 
I have no reference to our Kansas bands; 
For here the folks do nothing mean, 
As the whole world has often seen; 
But as I was saying, ere this digression, 
'Tis my matured and thorough impression 
That in the fair and famed New York city 
The way some of her folks act is a pity; 
Yes, and over in mighty London, too, 
Why, there's nothing but they will do; 
And in polite and pretty Paris grand. 
There 's a good deal of knavery in that land ; 
* As well as within that ancient Pekin 
Is committed many a most wicked sin, 

VI. 
But I suppose there 's wisdom in it all. 
And I '11 comment no further on the fall, 
For the Bible in many places doth say 
'Twill all be right on resurrection day; 
However, there are still some few things 
That my Muse, upon her glittering wings, 
Would even now call me back to see, 
In and about that garden once so free; 
Ah, once 'twas a. most beautiful place! 
Birds of i)aradise its trees did grace; 



AN EDEN FAIRER THAN THAT OF OLD, 1 95 

A river flowing through the center fair 
Went casting refreshings everywhere; 
And when once without the garden wall, 
It formed four streams no way small ; 
And these, meandering onward, rolled 
Over '^onyx stones" and beds of gold. 

VII. 

Ah ! kind indeed was the Deity's care, 
To fit up for man such a garden rare; 
Blest and beautiful groves did abound, 
Where sniging birds congregated round; 
Wicked and wanton beasts of prey 
Were never intended there to stray; 
Xot so much as a murmur of discontent 
Out upon Eden's balmy breezes went; 
There the golden-winged butterfly 
Sported ever with angels from the sky. 
Amid the breath of a celestial breeze 
Which was wafted in and out the trees; 
Besides whispers oftentimes of love 
Were heard between the pigeon and the dove; 
And, conversing amid the balmy eventide. 
Angel and peri would walk side by side, 
Through all the starry hours of night — 
Ah, blest, beautiful, glorious sight ! 
To behold love, in the primitive time. 
Worshipping and wending in this clime. 



ig6 THE LAXD OF SUN AXD SOXG, 

VIII. 
The softest verdure underfoot did grow; 
Rain of silver from the moon did flow; 
And bright, busy Httle honey bees 
Gave their insect murmurs to the breeze; 
Oftentimes soft spirit whispers there 
Could be heard amid the deep-hushed air; 
'Twas glorious, in the cool of day. 
To see the God of Heaven that way stray; 
For a bright, grand glory broke around. 
Lighting each bush and foot of ground 
With that sort of a celestial hue 
As if heaven had unfolded to the view. 
Indeed, it was most favored, I ween, 
To have been of such a garden its queen; 
Grandly fine it was beyond poetic pen 
To have been wife of that king of men ; 
Never, save once, hath such perfection, too. 
Fallen upon mankind's admiring view, 
Since the world's wondrous age begun; 
That was when they killed the kingly Son, 
And stained Jerusalem's fair name 
On tlie ledger of heaven with blame. 

IX. 

Such, dear reader, was the Eden of old, 
But of a fairer one shall now be told; 



AX EDEX FAIRER THAX THAT OF OLD. 1 97 

More blessed is its delightful clime, 
^lore heavenly its breathings divine. 
To those ears that can catch the note 
Of sweet sound as it doth down float 
Right from the beautiful shrine above. 
Bearing to earth blest messages of love^ 
]\Iuch more verdant are its varied leas; 
A sweeter balm perfumes its breeze; 
In the breath of a fair, lovely morn 
'Tis quite impossible to feel forlorn; 
The same in the sun or moonlight glow, 
Drinking in pleasures rare here below. 
'Tis long years since I wended this way. 
In quest of a bright, romantic fay; 
I 'd tired grown of the Atlantic coast, 
Where of brown bread and beans they boast. 
Rumor of this realm reached me there; 
To gain it, then, was my greatest care; 
And since enjoying its free, happy sway 
I look on those early years as thrown away. 
Had I known the delights of this land 
I 'd have broken every friendship band, 
In those young years ere it was done. 
And westward to this Eden come. 

X. 

Where is this fruitful spot of earth? 
For of such places there is much dearth, 



198 THE LAND OF SUN AND SONG. 

As one doth go the wide world round, 
Anywhere in creation to be found. 
Reader, I '11 make the place known to thee 
'Tis the fair-famed Kansas country; 
Much fairer tlian that Eden of old 
As its painful story hath been told; 
For besides having everything here 
Which w^as known to that eastern sphere, 
We have people more cunning and cute 
Than to heed the guile of such a brute; 
Especially when 'twas so very thin 
A subterfuge for committing sin ; 
For our people very much ageee 
As to rules of proper conduct, you see. 

XI. 
We 've longer and more beautiful walks, 
Far richer meads and fairer flocks; 
Groves where birds of snowy white 
Allure and charm the tourist's sight; 
Fair, rolling plains which seem aglow 
With rainbow hues, that floating flow 
Fresh from the shrine of the skies, 
In beautiful unfoldings to mortal eyes; 
The very air seems to be a mirror clear. 
Full of sights of the celestial sphere; 
The brooks, meandering under the sun. 
Reflect fanes of glory as they run; 



AN EDEX FAIRER THAN THAT OF OLD, 1 99 

The herds that nibble on their banks 
Seem to give the God of Heaven thanks, 
For the dehcious flavor of the grass, 
Upward borne as each zephyr doth pass. 
Here none of the forest animals find 
Cause for quarreling with their kind, 
For they burrow in the very same tree — 
Not only two, but often twenty-three — 
Never afraid of a goblin or ghoul; 
The prairie dog, rattlesnake, owl — 
'Tis true, by the word of my soul — - 
Will often hive in the self-same hole, 
Far out upon the distant prairie lea. 
Thus showing love for each other, you see. 

XII. 

And why shouldn't this Kansas land 
Be fairer than that old eastern strand? 
'Tis much newer and nicer, of course — - 
Never was subdued by a warlike force ; 
No serpent has ever crawled this way 
To scatter venom on any part of our clay: 
And God never did curse this o-round, 
That all man's bliss might be drowned 
In the engulfing waves of a treacherous sea, 
While delving for bread and a cup of tea ; 
With flaming swords no angels stand 
To intercept emigrants to this land; 



200 THE LAXD OF SUX AXD SOXG. 

Here there 's more than one tree of life 
That stands bearing fruit fair and rife; 
The whole far-away rolling, fertile soil 
Amply rewards each man for his toil ; 
He can hardly put a drill in the earth 
But a gas well or coal mine has birth, 
For the surface indications, you see, 
For gas are very fine in this country. 

XIII. 

And then there was of the women fair 
But one put in that old Eden there; 
Whereas, two-thirds of a million ha^'e we; 
Xow, this is quite an attraction, you see; 
And, from what I have known and seen. 
Of fair flirtations 'neath the moonbeam, 
I wouldn't give a Kansas lady at all 
For a dozen from any other part of the ball; 
If there 's anything about the love game 
They don't understand, tell me its name. 
Ah ! if I wanted lessons in that school 
I 'd have a Kansas lady teach me the rule, 
By object lessons, made practical, you see, 
When the moon rides high and silvery, 
And the stars above the world do shine; 
Then I 'd be an apt pupil, I do opine. 



A.Y EDEN FAIRER THAX THAT OF OLD. 20I 

XIV. 
Walk forth in the fair summer's flow, 
When our foliage beauties divinely glow; 
And discernible a little rim of gold, 
About each forest leaf you may behold; 
The lovely flower will smile at you 
As its petals unfold in the morning dew; 
Each little, laughing blade of grass 
Will bid you joy as you do pass; 
Here fine hedge rows around each field 
A beauty to the landscape do yield; 
The frolicsome little lambs at play 
AVill cheer you upon your enchanted way; 
No drooping or discouraged swain 
Will meet you lamenting on the plain, 
Murmuring at the hardness of his lot — 
To murmur our people are all untaught; 
And the happy, cherub children, too. 
Will make you long your life to renew — - 
If you 'd have more life at your command, 
Truly, this is the Ponce de Leon land; 
No fens or fogs as in Florida here — 
The air is health-giving and clear; 
And this I 've heard, of a very truth 
Our Falls awaken feelings of youth. 
And many amid the blooms of May 
Have had their wrinkles taken away. 



202 THE LAND OF SUX AND SONG, 

XV. 

A water sprite wends by each stream, 
To point out the beauties to be seen ; 
A wood nymph by each shady grove, 
Commissioned by the hand of Jove, 
Will take the very politest of pains 
To show you the favored aisles and lanes 
Underneath each lovely green arcade, 
Where dappled light doth falling shade 
The warm July sun's intensest ray. 
For your moods and meditative way; 
And it will pay you to spend some time 
Within the grove shades of our clime; 
For there the voice of God may be heard. 
Speaking direct his wish and word, 
To the ear of your susceptible soul, 
Away from where coins of commerce roll, 
Jingling so loud that their very clink 
Makes the merchant at a minor lie wink, 
If 'twill only help his trade along 
So he can gain dollars from the throng, 
Or the lawyer lean toward the unjust 
For the last of his client's gold dust. 

XVI. 
'Tis, indeed, a beautiful thing to see, 
In this clime such delightful harmony, 



AX EDEX FAIRER THAX THAT OF OLD. 2O3 

After one has wended the world around 
To view what sights may there be founds 
Upon returning from one's weary toil — 
From earth's bad bustle and turmoil — 
Here the peaceful close of blessed day 
AVafts every whit of selfishness away; 
Like school girls wending two and two, 
Friends and lovers pass before the view, 
To the lawn or grove or brooklet's flow, 
For a sail as the tide doth outward flow; 
Oftentimes I 've seen such lovely sight, 
And 'tis just as true as the lines I write, 
I 've fancied beautiful spirits fair 
Came flashing through the ambient air, 
Bearing love links in their hands 
Forged in the bright Aidenn lands. 
On purpose to link heart lo heart. 
With bond truer than in any other mart, 
In this fairest portion of them all 
Which United States of America we call. 

XVII. 
Once I fancied, by a stream of gold, 
I saw an angel with a beauteous mold, 
Quite leisurely dipping and filling it, 
Making crowns various heads to fit; 
I stood and watched the angel for a time. 
Then said, ''What doest thou in this clime?" 



204 THE LAXD OF SUN AXD SOXG. 

The kindly angel looked round at me, 

As he finished the crown ninety-three, 

And replied with the mildest voice 

That ever awoke upon my ear a noise: 

^^You see, the judgment day is coming on; 

I 'm sent a herald from the realm of dawn 

To prepare out of earth's best gold 

Crowns for all the great, admitted fold; 

And although in every part of the world 

My weary pinions have been unfurled. 

Nowhere have I found gold like this 

From which to make crowns for the righteous; 

The supply seems to be endless as well, 

For I 've been molding crowns quite a spell — 

Off and on, twenty-five years or more; 

My heralds have borne them to yonder shore; 

They are now being carefully stowed away 

For the ending act of the last great day." 

XVIII. 

*^But," said I, ^^my dear angel good, 
Don't you think it just a little rude, 
All this bright gold to take away 
Without consulting our people, eh? 
It might be proper for you of the skies 
To give us something for this franchise? 
Because it must be a very big thing 
To fill the whole order of the King; 



AN EDEN FAIRER THAN THAT OF OLD. 205 

And for all the years of work before 
You don't seem a whit like giving o'er; 
Angel, indeed it must be very wrong 
To make of crowns such an endless throng, 
From this Kansas river of pure gold 
Enough to supply all creation's fold. 
Now, fair angel bright of the skies, 
Don't you think I'm right in my surmise?" 

XIX. 

^^ Looking at it from your point of view, 
Said the angel, ^'I yield deference due; 
But the Ruler Supreme of the spheres 
jNIust have crowns, as the judgment nears; 
Besides, this Kansas favored land 
AVas the choicest work of His hand ; 
He gave it more of each earthly boon 
Than any place where favors are strewn 
On earth's ball. Look at its climate rare. 
Its meads and its maidens so fair; 
The limpidity of the streams that flow, 
The life-giving zephyrs that blow. 
The lovely lakes and lawns of light. 
Of such no realm has a fairer sight; 
All these came from God's creative hand, 
As well as this gold by which we stand. 
Mortal, now answer me, isn't it right 
The gold to use, viewed in this light." 



206 THE LAND OF SUN AND SONG. 

XX. 

Said I: ''It surely would seem to be, 
As a matter of justice and equity; 
But some who have scruples over nice 
Would exact for it quite a price. 
Indeed, angel, I very, very much fear, 
Should our real-estate men come here, 
They '11 read a deed that will hold 
Fairly well this whole river of gold 
From the north to south of the State, 
For they have legal ability great. 
Although they 'd own on either hand 
But a town lot or an eighty of land. 
Under the plea of ' ancient light ^ 
They'd claim the whole river site; 
For they 're just as sharp as a tack 
When 'tis their turn to hold the sack." 

XXI. 

''No fear," said the angel, "of that; 
They'll never know what I've been at; 
For they're quite busy with a 'boom,' 
And for law matters have little room ; 
And no one but a poet would ever see 
On earth this river of gold like thee; 
It 's really strange, when I come to think, 
How many have passed by the river's brink 



AN EDEN FAIRER THAN THAT OF OLD. 207 

And never once of it made any note — 
Straight jackets buttoned to the throat, 
Who go through the world quite lordly, 
Missing the very best scenes on the way. 
Mortal, to you I have opened my mind, 
So now to a task of quite another kind." 

XXII. 

So saying, the angel took from the mold 

Another most beautiful crown of gold ; 

He gave it to a peri near at hand, 

Who went winging to the Aidenn land; 

Still another and another he made; 

Winged messengers near lent their aid ; 

As soon as a crown was finished fair 

It was borne upward athwart the air ; 

Ah ! beautiful it was the mold to see 

The angel dipping in the golden sea; 

And then rolling from its opening hems 

Such wondrous fair, bright diadems; 

Thus showing crowns '11 be needed on high — 

That some will gain them in the sk\', 

Notwithstanding infidelity may jeer. 

The act of the angel proved quite clear; 

Because no one will pretend to say 

The angel worked to pass his time away; 

Indeed, had this been his only design. 

He would have visited sights in our climCj 



208 THE LAXD OF SUX AXD SOXG. 

For there is enough here to behold 

That would please any of the heavenly fold. 

XXIII. 
Right at his task the angel held 
Till a chorus celestial about him swelled, 
As if in approval of the work he 'd done 
In this far-famed land of sun; 
Then very distinctly in the balmy air 
These sweet words were outspoken fair: 
* 'Angel bright, of the heavenly clime, 
Come rest from thy work for a time;" 
Then just one more crown of gold. 
Fairly beautiful, from the mint rolled. 
The angel took it in his radiant hand. 
Then turning to me gave this command: 
^'Mortal, at the judgment see that thou 
Gain a golden crown for thy brow; 
I must away to the celestial spheres. 
For the night time of earth nears, 
And some vile, wicked spirit, out late, 
Might lurking round about wait, 
Rob me of this fair, beautiful mold. 
To please the leader of the lower fold; 
For he doesn't A\ant any crowns made 
For the coming celestial parade. 
Peri heavenly, this crown take you; 
Mortal earthlv, I bid thee adieu." 



AN EDEN FAIRER THAN THAT OF OLD. 209 

XXIV. 

So saying, the angel and peri arose 
Upon wings much whiter than snows; 
Away in the deep of the ether blue 
I gazed till they were out of view. 
'^Now/' said I, ''is my time to mold 
]\Ie a fair crown of shining gold." 
But oh ! alas ! the pattern was gone ; 
The angel had taken it with him along. 
So turning from the fair river I went, 
Uttering a half-suppressed lament; 
Soon, onward wandering, however, I came 
To a broad, beautiful, inviting lane, 
Whose drooping willows, on either hand, 
Cast a delicious coolness o'er the land ; 
For a June day's sun had gone down; 
Then queen of night, with starry gown, 
Came w^alking up the lane to me, 
With a light step, majestic and free, 
AVhile dozens came trooping on behind. 
With cheerful and lithesome mind; 
The fair queen invited me to dance 
With her under the broad expanse. 

XXV. 

Of course I could not well refuse- — 

I was bewitched with her face and shoes; 



lO THE LAND OF SUN AND SONG. 

Ah ! gaily beautiful was her dress; 
My shoulder she did lightly press 
As we whirled in the waltz away, 
With step to the music katydids say; 
Dozens on dozens were dancing there, 
Both gents and ladies quite rare. 
AVe danced till the moon rode high; 
We danced till it left the cloudless sky; 
The queen of night, with her starry gown, 
Danced all of the gay dancers down; 
Each of them withdrew from sight, 
Going this and that way out of the night; 
And when the last of them was gone 
The queen asked to sing me a song; 
'Twas so tender, so loving and sweet. 
That I fell on my knees at her feet. 
And asked if she 'd leave the sky 
For the love of such a mortal as I? 

XXVI. 

She answered: ^'Yes; between daylight, 
Dear sir, I'm very sure that I might; 
But whenever the sun shows his face, 
Then I must hie me away to my place; 
So throughout the whole livelong day 
You 'd have to pine when I was away, 
Because you could nowhere find me 
Upon this continent's land or sea, 



AN EDEN FAIRER THAN THAT OF OLD. 2 I I 

No matter how very sharp your eyes, 
Until I came walking through the skies. 
Art not the same romancer I saw long ago 
Writing sonnets in the moonlight's flow? 
Yes, indeed, the same thou surely art 
Who wrote the lines of ^'Cupid's Dart;" 
You 're a kind of a night bird free — 
Just the sort of a companion for me." 

XXVII. 

^'Yes," said I, ^^oft you've see me out 
In the hush of night time, no doubt; 
For then the deep voice of repose 
With a much calmer silence flows. 
And spirits from the better sphere 
The fond whispers of my soul hear; 
Indeed, I idolize this Kansas clime 
Next to my love for God the divine 
Oft I wander through the morn alone, 
Far from my kindred and early home, 
With a note book and pencil in hand 
Sketching down lines in this land; 
Queen, if you 'd tell me where you go 
During the day, my Muse would, I know, 
Give me some thoughts light and rare. 
Of your beautiful dress and wavy hair. 
Come, dearest queen of the night. 
Tell me where you pass the day quite, 



212 THE LAND OF SUN AXD SONG. 

That I may with one peep of the eye 
Look into your cave in the sky." 

XXVIII. 

The queen answered: '^See, yonder is morn, 
Tipping with light the tasseling corn;" 
And before a single word I could say 
The fair queen had hastened away. 
I couldn't tell whither she went, 
Nor why this strange, sudden bent, 
For she had seemed very fond of me. 
And just as loving as a queen could be; 
But I resolved, the very next night. 
To seek her with dress of starlight. 
And to learn why she fled thus away, 
AVithout a word of farewell, yea or nay. 
I very well know the ladies have whims. 
But such sudden turns I denominate sins. 

XXIX. 

The sun looks o'er the hills with a smile. 
And Mary looks for the cow at the stile — 
Ah ! yes, indeed, I 'm right in this, 
And her lips are pouting as if for a kiss. 
^']\Iorning, Mary! what's the matter?" said I 
^^What put that mischief into your eye?" 
Slie answered, with expression queer: 
^^Very strange things of you I hear; 



AN EDEN EAIRER TITAN THA T OF OLD. 2 I 5 

They say you run after queen of night, 
Just to show us girls your spite; 
There 's Kitty Jones, she 's dying for you — 
Maggie Matthews, as well as me, too. 
I should think you 'd find more delight 
In us than in that queen of night; 
For I have heard she goes at a bound 
When morn comes, right into the ground, 
Or otherwise straight up into the sky. 
Without as much as bidding you good bye. 
Now, is it true? would you love her still — ■ 
A queen with such a funny, frivolous will? 
Really and truly, I don't see how you can — 
Not if you're a whit like any other man." 

XXX. 

^^Yes," said I, ^^this queen of night 
Brings to my bosom much delight; 
Although she leaves me in a hurry, 
She combes with just as much flurry; 
And since coming to this Kansas land 
Her bewitching charms I can't withstand; 
Many a time she 's enticing taken me 
Over some far, lone or flowery lea. 
And elated with her charming smile 
The moonlight hours I would beguile. 
But Mary, see, we're at the yard now; 
There, let the hired man milk the cow, 



214 THE LAXD OF SUN AXD SOXG. 

While you play me a sweet sort of tune 
On the piano, about the bright moon, 
Or sing of some beautiful, lone star; 
For I hear music falling from afar, 
O'er the prairies and Kansas dells. 
From the warblings of her belles. 
Come, gentle Mary, won't you be kind. 
And play a love tune to my mind?" 

XXXI. 

The music floated on the morning air; 
I thanked the player with kindly care ; 
Some tender, friendship words were passed 
AVe repaired to partake the breakfast; 
It consisted of viands richly fine — 
Roast chicken and all the larder line; 
No other place could there be served 
Such a breakfast as in Kansas beloved ; 
For in this soil everything doth grow, 
From a rutabaga turnip to an Indian bow. 
Breakfast past, and a short-time talk, 
I betook myself to another walk; 
For it was too lovely to be in doors, 
And there was help to do the chores; 
So I wending wandered dreamily around, 
This way and that, looking at the ground, 
The bright and sparkling drops of dew. 
Then the bendinc^ skv above of blue; 



AA^ EDEN FAIRER THAN THA T OF OLD. 2 I 5 

No particular object moved my mind — 
I roamed to see what I could find. 

XXXII. 
Shortly I passed a picnic party very gay; 
The picnickers asked me with them to stay; 
But I had another notion in my head; 
'^Farewell, fair ones," were the words said. 
Not far from there a pony very tame 
I found nibbling grasses in a lane; 
On nearer approach I found it had wings — 
Ah ! 'twas one of those Pegasus things, 
Which a poet by prescription may ride 
Over the track of imagination wide. 
Without dictation or hire from any one; 
So I instantly mounted the horse upon. 
He gave a caper, a bound, and was away. 
Speeding along without very much delay; 
He arose right up into the yielding air. 
For he could travel almost anywhere. 

XXXIII. 

At first a kind of dizziness I did feel. 
But I was elated by the animal's zeal; 
I very soon ceased to think of myself 
In viewing the rich, luxuriant wealth 
Of the broad realm as I did pass. 
Which was all reflected as in a glass; 



2l6 THE LAXD OF SUX AXD SOXG. 

For, you know, I had a bird's-eye view, 
And as well an eye romantic, too. 
Ah, 'twas lovely! each piece of ground; 
Each grove and grain field around; 
Each fragrantly rare and flowery mead ; 
Each spot where the cattle did feed; 
Each lawn where the maids did stray ; 
Each yard where the children did play; 
Each park where the deer did stalk; 
Each sequestered, finely shaded walk ; 
Each town and city along the line; 
Each bright bush and creeping vine ; 
Each bridge that spanned a stream; 
Each railroad with steel track agleam — ■ 
In short, all things I looked upon 
Held the touch of a celestial dawn, 
Breaking round about the border 
With beauty and supernal order. 

XXXIV. 
As speeding my steed a-wing did go, 
I looked on the kindly folk below; 
Some seemed glad to see me in the sky, 
While more looked up and heaved a sigh, 
That they hadn't a winged horse to ride 
For viewing the glory of the realm wide. 
Sometimes a visitor from another State 
Would shoot at me a dart of his ill hate ; 



.4.Y EDEX EAIRER THAX TIIA T OF OLD. 2 I 7 

But I was far beyond its wanton reach, 
And at the rebound I heard a screech; 
For the archer, looking for me to fall, 
Paid no heed to the returning arrow at all; 
And so the point would often wound, 
And strike the archer to the ground. 
Of course the people laughed to see 
Such miss both my winged steed and me; 
But it pained me that archer, you know, 
Should fall by self-inflicted blow; 
Those experts in killing literary game 
Who have a sarcastic and revengeful aim. 

XXXV. 

I remember well, as my steed flew on. 
The bright beauty of the Topeka dawn. 
They were holding an annual fair, 
But an archer espied me in the air; 
He instantly upraised his deadly bow; 
Then a voice said: ^^Hold there, ho! 
That's one of Kansas' adopted sons; 
With this pistol and larger loaded guns. 
If you throw but a single arrow at him, 
I '11 make a sieve of you, sure as sin ; 
For I like to see a boy ride that way; 
None of you would dare to do it, eh? 
Well, it takes a horsem.an, I 'd remark. 
To ride like that over plain and park, 



2l8 THE LAXD OF SUN AND SONG. 

Where all the world may see his steed, 
Without touching a foot to heather or mead. 
Come, you cranky man, put down your bow, 
And let the aerial rider his way go!" 

XXXVI. 

The archer didn't want to become a sieve. 
So he wisely concluded to let me live. 
I got well away from that region soon, 
Making more stir than an uprising balloon; 
For many were looking, with critical eyes. 
Quite closely into these Kansas skies. 
Anxiously awaiting to see me fall — 
Some had prepared the funeral pall; 
For such ones had just about as soon 
Follow a Pegasus rider to his tomb, 
Into the churchyard all mournfully. 
As the sights of the fair to see. 
But, urging my steed, onward I did go. 
Some little higher up, you know, 
In order that I might be out of sweep 
Of each and every archer's frantic streak, 
Who won't shoot at a mark on the ground 
For simple fear of the crowd to wound; 
But such never stop to think at all, 
That a rider may hurt others in the fall; 
The great pleasure of killing such game 
Is their highest ambition and aim. 



AN EDEN FAIRER THAN THAT OF OLD. 2 19 

XXXVII. 

But now I must urge my steed along, 
For soon I alight and sing another song — 
One where archers won't have such view 
At my person, Muse, informant, too. 
For into the future I propose to go. 
And there they can't keep up, I know; 
For the Parnassian height of the hill 
Their last speck of courage will kill; 
Climbing isn't the line of their walk — 
They make a living by crisp bits of talk; 
And, moreover, there rolls a stream 
Lit with a sun-bright, dazzling gleam. 
That never a gaily-painted boat 
Of critics' in its waters would float; 
And there 's an angel by the strand 
That won't let them step on the land; 
And they 've no winged horse, you see, 
With which to cantering follow me. 
Into those beautiful realms Elysian 
Of my next canto, called ^^The Vision." 



THE VISION. 



CANTO SEVENTH, 



THE VISION. 



I. 
When from the clouds I did alight, 
This fair vision passed before my sight: 
It is somewhat prophetic to the view; 
Reader, I '11 tell it in confidence to you. 
I see a future grandly glorious State, 
(Now 'tis one of the united thirty-eight,) 
Awav back in its earliest infancv 
Struggling for leave a State to be. 
'Twas, indeed, very hard times, then. 
With those primitive, determined men ; 
Few they were in number, but brave in soul, 
With a faith sublime in this goal. 
Somehow they worked away and stayed — 
They fought Indians as well as prayed; 
Ah, yes! they held their ^^dug outs." too. 
Till the light came streaming through. 
But from fancy to facts we pass. 
As the transition of sands in a glass. 

II. 

Coronado was the first white who came, 
In fifteen hundred and forty-one the same; 
C223) 



224 THE LAND OF SUN AND SONG. 

But his adventurous Spanish band 
Soon thereafter retreated from the land; 
Then passed one hundred and eighty years 
Before another European again appears; 
In seventeen-nineteen Frenchmen came 
This sunny land to inherit and reclaim, 
According to God's original intent, 
Under the agency of ^I. du Tissenet; 
He found natives and mines of lead ; 
Erected a column to the king, 'tis said; 
Shortly New Mexican Spaniards made strife, 
Thinking to take each Frenchman's life; 
But the invading expedition failed, 
And the French Fort Orleans hailed. 
In seventeen hundred and twenty-three. 
On an island in the Missouri river free. 

III. 

The following year one Bourgmont came, 
Who cultivated friendship's claim 
With native tribes; thus things went on 
Till seventeen twenty-five ; one dawn 
Revolting savages captured the fort, 
Slaughtering the garrison — such the report; 
Not a single white man survived to tell 
The number that in the massacre fell. 
After the occurrence of this sad affair, 
To remain longer the French didn't care; 



THE VISION, 225 

So Kansas lands fell almost out of mind 
Till Lewis and Clark this way inclined ; 
Then in eighteen hmidred and six, alike, 
Came the far-famed explorer, Mr. Pike; 
'Twas thus till eighteen hundred and twenty, 
When there came Major Long's party plenty; 
Afterward charms on the Pacific coast 
Brought gold hunters by the host. 
Who went trooping across our border. 
Leaving sometimes one as a guard, in order 
To keep the track for others to come, 
Or for gold gainers a backward run. 

IV. 
Came the /^Kansas -Nebraska legislation;" 
Then 'twas but an Lidian reservation. 
At the time the Territory was organized 
Seven hundred whites the population comprised, 
Together with a score of Indian tribes 
Who were ejected by legislative scribes, 
And driven elsewhere for game to kill; 
Such the provision of the enacting bill. 
Many of our orators opposed the move, 
But their eloquence did not behoove; 
The greeting word was '^Westward, ho!" 
And the Lidian wigwams had to go ; 
It was urged that the land was too fair 
To be held by tribes who didn't care; 
15 



226 THE LAXD OF SUX AXD SOXG. 

And there was seeming reason in the theme, 
But 'twill be evened by the God supreme. 
When whites and reds are called before 
The brightness of heaven's open door, 
In the last just and equitable decree, 
Who was right, who was wrong, we shall see. 
Thus from such a start Kansas went along. 
Till what it is at the writing of my song. 

V. 

In the historic Kansas' short life span 

She has passed the most sanguine hopes of man, 

Until this intellectual day she stands 

The o^reatest attraction of all lands — 

Both in her happy homes and hopes, 

Her verdant plains and sunny slopes; 

The healthful salubrity of her clime, 

The grace and goodness of her women divine; 

Her school houses, festivals and fairs; 

Her churches and her pauper cares; 

Her business blocks and theatric rooms; 

Her banks, bonds and beautiful blooms; 

Her farmers, possessed of generous soul ; 

Her long and honorable soldier roll; 

Her cities, the marvel of this age ; 

Her rooms of learning, seminary, college; 

Her rivers, lakes, and lines of road; 

Her soil, that produces when nothing's sowed; 



THE VISION. 227 

Her temperance laws, franchisement strides; 
Her suns and moons and starry eventides; 
Her million and a half of people, wise; 
Her '^Adastraperaspera,'''' in the skies; 
Her best of all that God has given 
This side the portals bright of heaven. 

VI. 
Reader, amid all this fair ambient. 
It might have been well to be content; 
But bewitchment's prophetic vision true 
Lifted futurity's mantle to my view; 
So in a kind of enchantment's dream 
I pass to the coming years with my theme. 
Leisurely, amid one fair evening's glow, 
I wended by the stream of time's flow; 
When a fair angel, with chart in hand, 
Said: ^^What doest thou in this land? 
Knowest not this is forbidden ground; 
That thou- hast passed the mortal bound? 
Sights in this mystic realm you may see, 
Perchance, were better unknown to thee. 
But what is it, mortal, thou wouldst know? 
Speak; mayhap it were mine to show." 

VII. 
The queerest kind of feeling strange. 
Thrilling about my heart did range ; 



2 28 THE LAXD OF SCX AXD SOXG. 

I was very fearful lest my request 

]\Iight displease the fair angel blest ; 

But I resolved to stake the whole 

Of life's hopes for a look at that scroll ; 

For somehow within my very heart 

I knew much information it could impart, 

Because of our ad^'ancement free. 

The angel had been taking notes, you see; 

Xot only was our historic past, 

But the future, pictured therein fast, 

With a dividing bar of gold between. 

A light shone on the future scene; 

The angel had the scroll unrolled, 

And, with mild voice, said, ^'Mortal, behold I 

VIII. 
Xow this fair angel was so very kind, 
She aided me the future record to find. 
Saying, ^Olortal, read upward from here, 
In order to see a vision of thy sphere." 
I gained a glimpse of her lovely eye. 
Ere into the hidden future I did pry ; 
So with her right hand she took hold, 
I, with my left, the chart of gold; 
At first the glimmers upon my sight 
Seemed to fall most vividly bright; 
But as in bewonderment there I stood. 
The intensitv of the lii?ht was subdued; 



THE VISION. 229 

While I of the scroll took good heed, 
The beautiful angel said, ^^ Mortal, read!" 

IX. 

These the words my accent weighed: 
^'From this date onward, years a decade, 
Kansas, with a million and a half of souls, 
Three million into the future rolls; 
Nearly all the land will be taken then, 
From Kansas City to her western hem; 
About each hamlet shade trees range. 
Grapes hang ripening in the grange; 
Golden fields of fair, waving grain 
Will beautify the wide, extended plain ; 
Numberless herds of cattle will rove, 
Grazing by each meandering river's grove; 
Frolicsome lambs will skip and play, 
Like glimmers of the declining day; 
Droves of swine will eat acorns free; 
A boy at every point on guard will be 
To keep them out of fields of corn, 
Which will rustle gladly in the morn; 
Grand farm houses will arise to view, 
Rodded with gold and silver vanes, too; 
Smiling children go along each lane 
To the schools, knowledge good to gain; 
While carriages will, with four-in-hand. 
Of pleasure parties fill all the land. 



230 THE LAXD OF SUN AND SONG. 

X. 

'^ Steam cars will everywhere be seen, 
With street cars running between ; 
The cities will be vastly beautified, 
Of Kansas both the joy and pride ; 
They '11 be greatly extended and enlarged, 
With excellent governments surcharged ; 
For all the ladies will have a vote 
On each and every question, howe'er remote; 
While temperance will become the theme 
Of each people round the earth green. 
For that future period, you know 
Will much nearer to perfection grow; 
And what few drinking men there '11 be. 
It w411 be a sight refreshing to see 
Them drinking from the crystal spring. 
While doves about them flit and sing; 
And fair- faced children sport in glee. 
Singing, ^Kansas from whisky is free.' 

XI. 

'^In that age no tramps will be seen, 
But all, dressed neatly and clean, 
A\'ill, with the same impulse, you know, 
About their various duties go; 
Public prints will be much enlarged ; 
Legislators with responsibilities charged ; 



THE VISION. 231 

Because Kansas will be in the lead 
Of a most wonderful rate of speed; 
Rushing onward to the apex of the hill 
Of each aspiration known to human will; 
Ah! 'twill be a dizzy point to gain, 
But your people will the height maintain, 
Both in State and National hall, 
As the very foremost State of all." 

XII. 
Here I came to a separating golden bar, 
Whereupon the angel said, ^^Read on afar." 
So with delight I further read, 
After still another ten years had fled : 
^Most wonderful indeed is this age, 
In the passage of the Kansas pilgrimage ; 
Near seven million souls have come 
And found homes in the land of sun ; 
And still such is the daily increase 
That it takes from sheep many a fleece, 
All this multitude of backs to cover — 
Mother, father, brother, sister, lover; 
Almost every foot of Kansas' lands 
Are now under cultivation's hands; 
And there is now no sort of doubt 
That the soil will ever wear out ; 
Because you see tested all these years. 
Full better crops it each season rears. 



32 THE LAND OF SUN AND SONG. 

As the fine rains and refreshings come 
To this most wonderful land of sun. 
Of course, the other States have grown 
And improved on a line of their own ; 
But Kansas now stands in advance of all 
Her beautiful sisters, short or tall ; 
She floats a banner to the breeze 
Which is talked about on all the seas; 
^Intelligence/ 'Progression/ 'Right/ 
Are the watchwords on that banner bright; 
And if any aspirant wishes to be 
President of this united country, 
He posts himself off to Kansas first, 
Because none, not e'en the boldest, durst 
Think such high, exalted honor to gain 
Without asking Kansas voters for the same; 
Indeed, she has one of her bright sons. 
As this grand age of the future runs. 
Holding that high, important office now. 
With prospects for another, all allow. 

XIII. 

''Abilene is the capital of the State, 
And has grown to dimensions great; 
Because quite a number of years back 
Her citizens no toil or energy did lack. 
To bring this 'capital removal' about; 
In all the papers that went out 



THE VI SI OX. 233 

Her editors had something fine to say 

In reo^ard to how the city did lav, 

Calling her 'Queen of the Plains/ 

As well as 'Beauty of AVestern Domains,' 

Until the people took a notion, you see, 

And removed the capital instantly. 

This was quite a number of years ago ; 

No one vrould take it from Abilene — no! 

Because she has grown away in the lead 

Of her neighbors, who hankered with greed. 

Long since, for this great capital boom, 

Promising in their midst to make room. 

But now the State House is fixed at last, 

And chained there with an anchorage fast; 

And even the renowned Topeka, she 

Gains much by courting Abilene's popularity; 

So the two cities are best of friends. 

And in each progress with happiness blends. 

XIV. 
"Here are manufactories of every sort; 
For enterprise it is a great resort; 
IMany spindles make music in the breeze; 
Institutions for making watches and teas; 
Rollings plane mills, foundries tall, 
Furnish forth their work to the round ball ; 
Here the problem of protection is solved ; 
With debts no working man is involved; 



2 34 ^^^^ LAND OF SUN AND SONG. 

All laws are enacted wholesome and wise, 

So that each aspirant in life can rise; 

If he have integrity and an honest face, 

Such may gain in life almost any place; 

As for each of the Kansas ladies, they 

Are worshiped and in demand alway. 

Indeed, from over the waters they come. 

To secure wives from the land of sun; 

For it has grown quite a popular craze 

To have a ^Kansas wife,' these modern days." 

XV. 

At this place another bar met my sight; 

I looked in the eyes of the angel bright; 

But she gently reproved, saying to me, 
*' Mortal, read! something more to see." 

Thereupon these lines I did trace: 
*^ Twelve millions of the human race 

At this date occupy the Kansas lands; 

Her lawns, her leas, her meads, her strands; 

This is a wonderful number to count, 

But they're supplied from nature's fount; 

For the productive force of this soil 

Pays a very large per cent, on the toil ; 

And manufactories have sprung into being 

That are vastly worth one's seeing; 

Great and mighty ships wing the air. 

Carrying Kansas commodities everywhere; 



THE VISION. 235 

People are on the eve of learning to fly; 
They talk many thousand miles in the sky; 
There are towers of intelligence seen, 
From which many colored lights gleam, 
Telling the people of rain, hail and thaw, 
The enactment of a new kind of law. 
As well as where a stray babe is lost, 
And the going and coming of frost. 

XVI. 
'' Stations are erected in the air, you see. 
Where heralds send out continuously 
Little flaring balls of red light. 
As signals to keep to left or right; 
Air navigators who disregard the rule 
Are put into a progressive school, 
Which has instructors of skillful mood, 
That teaches transgressors to be good; 
There 's but little use for lawyers now — 
The people know what concessions to allow; 
There 's little work for preachers to do, 
Except to peruse the Bible through; 
Fair beyond description all the land; 
Peace, prosperity, reign on every hand. 
There's a deal of talk about Kansas round; 
She has a prodigy, with intellect profound, 
Who has invented a printing machine 
On which papers can be struck between 



236 THE LAXD OF SUN AND SONG. 

Ten minutes past the usual printing hour 

And half past — such its printing power; 

Besides its price is so very cheap 

That all establishments it may keep; 

There 's no typesetting, nothing to do 

But to put in the paper and run it through; 

Or, rather, the machine runs itself; 

The editor puts printed sheets on the shelf. 

And, by means of an ingenious spring, 

A wrapper secure around them doth cling; 

Then away they go, already addressed, 

Either to the eastward or the west; 

To any point in the north or south. 

All unaffected by the damp or drouth. 

XVII. 

''And this same fellow recently made 
Things so farmers can sit in the shade 
And see their great corn crops grow. 
With a machine running between each row; 
The thing rests when the day is done, 
And again begins at the rising sun ; 
'Tis, indeed, a wonderful little tool. 
And does its work by method and rule. 
There is an attachment, too, for wheat, 
Ingenious, compact, and very neat; 
The wonderful thing picks the corn. 
And knocks the potato bugs forlorn, 



THE VIS 10 X. 237 

There's little but the machine '11 do; 

It 's expected that will be accomplished, too ; 

For this Kansas man has a wonderful brain — 

Reader, you ask me to disclose his name? 

Well, as he is very modest, you see, 

I'll give his noni de pliiine to thee; 

'Tis James Charles Henry Caleb Cue; 

They say there 's nothing but he can do — 

Oh, yes, indeed ! he lives in Abilene, 

On Mulberry Lane, in a cottage painted green; 

His asre is now twentv-three to a dav ; 

There's a mis^htv career before that bov, av ! " 

XVIII. 

Right here, for the space of two bars. 
The scroll was filled with shining stars; 
Through the dim future I wandered on, 
For fifty years of the land of song; 
There, with a golden line at the head, 
These most curious words I read — 
''The Twin Goveimments.'''' 
What? disunion ! did the heading mean. 
Of the American Government supreme? 
' ' Nay, nay ! not thus, ' ' the angel said ; 
''Mortal, read on, and be comforted." 

XIX. 

''The Kansas population, at this day. 
Has reached near twenty millions, ay; 



238 THE LAND OF SUN AND SONG. 

The breadth of the vast American land 
One President cannot now command; 
So in the best wisdom of every mind 
Two governments had to be assigned, 
And the Mississippi's mighty stream, 
That river became the dividing scene; 
Now, out of associations, sacred, just. 
The glory of Washington, Lincoln's dust, 
Grant's world-wide, enduring fame. 
And our Garfield's deathless name, 
Logan, Hancock, McClellan, Tippecanoe, 
McPherson, Sherman, and Sheridan, too, 
Washington remains Government head; 
But ours is more flourishing, 'tis said. 
For 'tis located in a lovely scene — 
The beautiful metropolis of Abilene. 
Few cities in the United States 
Have a greater population, for the fates 
Seem ever to aid her on and still on, 
As the fair queen of the land of song. 

XX. 

^'Yes, there are two American Presidents, 
But their will is one, to all intents; 
For the improvements of this age 
Have erected a sort of hanging stage. 
With a rudder not unlike a ship. 
Which in the air will rise and dip. 



THE VIS I OX. 239 

And skim away at such a rate of speed 
To be in Washington short time you need; 
And much Hke a meteor's rapid gleam, 
The conveyance returns to Abilene. 
There are talking stations in the air; 
Speaking one can be heard anywhere ; 
Improvement controls nearly everything; 
The people don't do much but sit and sing; 
Somewhat like unto heaven it has grown; 
Famine, pestilence, from earth have flown; 
Each one has plenty, and some to spare; 
Kansas is the chief talk everywhere: 
Her puff bills on each corner are posted, 
For no realm e'er of such orators boasted 
As gather' round about her capital here, 
Holding Congress throughout the year. 

XXI. 

^^ Should a man of fifty years ago 
Enter Abilene, he 'd not see a thing to know; 
There 's been such a vast, wondrous change. 
That he would seem in fancy to range. 
Gazing at her fifteen-story buildings, 
With fronts of golden-glass gildings; 
And streets full twenty rods wide, 
With marble palings along each side, 
And walks of beautiful, airy light, 
AVith networks enchanting to the sight; 



240 THE LAND OF SUN AND SONG. 

Banks, book rooms and aquarial gardens; 
Court houses simply granting pardons; 
One continuous flow on 'Fashion Fair' — 
Such the name of a street very rare — 
From earliest speck of dawning day 
Till the late Pleiades together stray; 
For many, very many miles far around 
Not one old land mark may be found; 
And some of the most aged people, too, 
Have let the young city slip from view. 

XXII. 

''In fact, near about the whole State 
Has grown into a continuous city great; 
It would take too much of this scroll 
To record a millionth part of the whole; 
The wide, western world, mountains and all, 
Is dotted with cities large and small ; 
Kansas is center now of population, 
As well as mistress of all creation; 
Histories mighty of her have been written, 
And to memory almost every word committen, 
For the text of this fair, sunny land. 
Next to the Bible, is the best to expand 
All those young intellects that crave 
Knowledge of earth, of air, of wave; 
For the gods, by some favoring device. 
Have turned Kansas into a new paradise. 



THE VISION. 241 

The province of the old, eastern land 
Was to nurture the first of God's hand; 
But it is reserved for Kansas to be 
The great garden spot of immortality, 
In giving the world its last rules 
For the nations and their schools." 

XXIII. 
I glanced at the angel's face once more, 
But she referred me • to the chart as before ; 
Five other spaces did my eyes accost; 
I wandered away into the future, lost; 
For a whole hundred years, you see, 
Made a wonderful impression upon me; 
I felt timid, afraid to peruse the scroll. 
For mysterious whispers sounded to my soul; 
The vast and mighty ages, hoar with eld, 
Seemed uprising, as these words I spelled — 

' ' Wo7tderful Change. ' ' 
I looked at the angel once again; 
Darkness had settled over the plain ; 
Dim shapes seemed to be veering around; 
I felt as if walking enchanted ground. 
I said, ^^Angel, 'tis dark; with the best of heed 
Nothing more of the scroll may I read." 
But she mildly replied, ^'See, the light 
Shines on the scroll fair and bright; 



242 THE LAND OF SUN AND SONG. 

Perchance 'twas an imp that threw 
The darkness momentarily on thy view; 
There yet remain many things to know — 
Read, m.ortal, read! and let me go." 

XXIV. 
^''Tis nineteen hundred and eighty-eight; 
Ah, yes! there have been changes great; 
The population of Kansas is now unknown, 
'Tis so very wonderfully overgrown; 
On each half acre is a house or two, 
With hundreds of population in view; 
The cities have become a solid block. 
With just room for streets and a walk; 
And things are about as hampered up 
As a thousand gnats on the rim of a cup; 
But everything goes peacefully along. 
Smoothly, in *The Land of Sun and Song,' 
Whose familiar and most mighty fame 
Reaches to each people of earthly name ; 
Great squadrons, from far over the seas, 
Have sailed to both coasts with the breeze, 
And journeyed the whole continent o'er 
To meet in Kansas from either shore. 
Just to view the most wonderful things 
Wafted to them upon rumor's wangs. 



THE VISION, 24 J 

XXV. 

^^ Abilene, Topeka, are about together grown; 
Capital removal no longer contention bone; 
Abilene 's population we will not give, 
But there's about as many as can live; 
Once they wanted people for a ^boom/ 
Now they ask the people for ^room;' 
The tide of humanity drifted this way, 
Until now there's as many as can stay; 
But still many more want to come 
To the truly wonderful land of sun ; 
Many multitudes may be daily seen 
Seeking permanent residences in Abilene; 
But there 's no sign of real estate men ; 
The people haven't a bit of use for them; 
So much general intelligence reigns. 
Widespread o'er all these Western plains, 
In regard to this, that, and everything, 
The people do their own conveyancing. 

XXVI. 
'^In Abilene, one might travel a day or twOy 
And a law sign wouldn't meet the view; 
Such blissful harmony there prevails 
That peace goes brooding on the gales; 
In short it has come to be an adage 
That this is indeed the golden age, 



244 ^-^^ LAND OF SUN AND SONG, 

Returned from the regions of rest, 
And diffused throughout the ^blessed West;' 
All seems to have reached perfection's point, 
And to be working harmoniously in joint; 
Never a wiseacre in this region around 
Is worshipped for philosophy profound; 
Because the general people understand 
That knowledge is free within this land; 
So they've laid in the proper supply 
To take them from earth into the sky; 
For about the last of the infidel creed 
Went when IngersoU was laid in the mead, 
By a solemn chanting and singing few 
That the last of his criticisms were through. 

XXVII. 
*'The winters have come to be as mild 
As when the Territory first smiled; 
Long ago they quit boring for gas, 
For God set a bound man couldn't pass; 
But coal fields plenty were found — 
Mineral, diamond, gems under ground, 
As well as large quantities of gold 
And silver, as the report is told. 
The cities of the State are exceeding fair, 
Builded with stone, digged here and there; 
Flying has gotten to be an assured thing; 
People hasten hither and thither on the wing 



THE VIS I OX. 245 

It 's a veritable fact, though you smile, 
They 've traveled this way quite a while; 
There 's talk of an expedition soon, 
Going from Kansas straight to the moon ; 
Heaven will, if it 's a great success, 
Be the next place they start for, I guess; 
For nothing in all the universe wide 
AVill ever make a Kansan fully satisfied, 
Save heaven alone, and when he 's there 
He '11 want to govern some small share. 

XXVIII. 
*'It's wonderful, the ambition of these men; 
They'll strive times as many as ten; 
And when }'0u think they 've given o 'er, 
They are full as determined as before; 
They '11 contend to have their way, 
Vrhether in snow, rain or dawning day; 
Such fellows nowhere else in the world 
Against the fates human will hurled; 
Besides thev never undertake a theme 
But they stick till triumph's gleam 
Bursts joyous and resplendent round, 
And thev the envied 2;oal have found. 
'Tis reported that two Kansas men 
Will accomplish more than other ten 
Selected from any sister State, 
In resisting the dire demands of fate; 



246 THE LAND OF SUY AND SONG. 

And the women, like an editor's quill, 
Almost invariably have their will ; 
There 's nothing children of such a pair 
Wouldn't attempt to do, or doing, darCo 

XXIX. 

*' The Kansas land bids fair to be 
Selected for the world's twentieth jubilee; 
In fact it 's now about as good as fixed 
That all the nations, white and mixed, 
Of earth will send delegates here 
For a grand, ^Universal Jubilee Year;' 
But how Kansas will arrange for them 
'Tis beyond the scope of an ordinary ken, 
For the whole broad land is flowing full; 
But her folks will all together pull 
Determinedly, by doubling up somehow; 
For the world's guests they will allow. 
Because never once have they failed 
When a great enterprise they hailed ; 
And this is what puts them far ahead 
Of the whole round world, 'tis said." 

XXX. 
Here I came to still another bar — 
A queer kind of cross, and then a star; 
This was something I didn't understand, 
So I touched the auG^el's radiant hand, 



THE VISION. 247 

In hopes to make impressive, you see ; 

But quick as a flash she sped from me ; 

Both the scroll and light were gone; 

I 'd have given anything to be in the dawn; 

But yet it wanted some hours of day, 

And I 'd forgotten the backward way, 

So very much enamored had I become 

With the future of the land of sun. 

There I stood, paralyzed in each track; 

]\Iy limbs each life impulse did lack; 

Something like unto a voice of fear 

AVhispered misgiving words in my ear. 

Such as these: ^' Maybe you didn't read aright; 

The scroll had still another sight, 

Which you 'd seen on the opposite band. 

If you'd not touched the angel's hand; 

Mortal, for doing this heedless deed, you 

Ought to be drowned in the water's blue 

Of yonder great life-swelling stream. 

Flowing ■ there with a ghastly sheen; 

But if you have read the record wrong 

The world will condemn your song; 

And that punishment enough will be 

Till you 've crossed the raging sea; 

Then for the dance and the deathless day. 

Haste thee, mortal, from this place away." 



248 THE LAXD OF SUX AXD SOXG. 

XXXI. 

Then a clammy, cold kind of sweat 

My chilled and marble brow overset; 

But by the light of an eastern gleam 

The line of my backward track was seen; 

]My limbs were next to not any good, 

But I hastened from where I stood. 

And somehow regained my former place, 

Ere I the angel's mystic chart did trace; 

The hour was now just turning into day; 

The eastern horizon was streaked with gray; 

The place was quite familiar ground ; 

I'd ofttimes roamed that mead around; 

But somehow, try as much as I might. 

The throbbings of my heart wouldn't be quiet, 

For I felt as if I'd broken a command 

In touching the fair angel's hand ; 

It may bother her the heavenly path to fmd, 

Because of that contact with human kind ; 

Oh ! what blest boon wouldn't I give 

If I 'd that moment again to live. 

But really, after all, was I to blame? 

For you know the impulse sudden came ; 

Yes, else why came that sense of wrong. 

Thrilling and throbbing so very strong? 



THE VISIOX. 249 

XXXII. 

Reader, the substance of what I read, 
From the mystic scroll hath been said; 
However, it matters but little, too. 
If imagination aided in the view, 
For mighty things in the future lie. 
Which may not be seen with common eye; 
And there are mystic heights to climb 
Ere one can behold futurity's shrine; 
And touch or wrongful stroke of a pen 
Will drive ans^els awav from the ken. 
If a comma or period is placed wrong. 
It shouldn't spoil quite the whole song; 
Because the printer makes it his trade 
The author in punctuation to aid; 
And, besides, when 'tis taken into view. 
Part of the prediction is made to please you. 
And your love for the Kansas clime; 
Don't be. too hard on this song of mine, 
Until you 've lived in the future ages. 
Prophetically unfolded in these pages. 
And demonstrated that this Kansas lay 
Was set to E when it ought to have been A : 
For mighty things the future doth hold. 
More marvelous than are herein told. 



250 THE LAND OF SUN AND SONG. 

XXXIII. 
If the author, by magic or mystery, somehow, 
Should wake up a hundred years from now. 
And arise from out the damp, cold clay 
Which will hide his features away. 
Long, indeed, before that time is past. 
He would, like Rip Van Winkle, be downcast; 
For he wouldn't know the sights to see; 
He wouldn't know this Kansas country; 
He wouldn't know any part of himself; 
Ah, indeed, even the greenwood elf 
Might have on a little coat of brown. 
And people be walking with heads down; 
Such wonderful changes will be seen 
In this realm surpassing poetic dream. 

XXXIV. 

But why do I talk of coming back? 
All creation is on the forward track; 
And, true to vast nature's every part. 
This garden of the fair Western mart 
Will bloom and blossom like the rose — 
Produce the fairest grain that grows; 
Also the brightest boys and girls, 
As the earth in her orbit onward whirls; 
The most far-seeing, gifted statesmen 
That ever won or wore fame's diadem; 



THE VISION. 2 5 I 

The very fairest of all ladies fair 

That ever left a mirage in the air 

Of their own exquisite loveliness 

For enamored swain to approach and kiss, 

When admiration's phantom leads him on, 

And his adored angel with another is gone. 

XXXV. 

These things, and ten thousand more, 
Are in the future's unfolding store 
For this loved, sunny Kansas land, 
The crowning work of God's own hand; 
For the adjustment of its every part. 
The blooms and beauties of its mart, 
The sweet mildness of its zephyrs, too, 
The refreshings of its rain and dew, 
Its shady walks and crystal springs, 
Its groves of tender young birdlings, 
Its wealth, its grandeur, its soil, 
Its remuneration for honest toil — 
All bespeak in rapturous strains 
The exquisiteness of creative pains. 
In fashioning this wondrous Eden here. 
The attraction of earth's round sphere. 

XXXVI. 

Reader, methinks it's something worth 
To claim such one's land of birth; 



2 5 2 THE LAND OF SUN AND SONG. 

For pampered heir of the royal line 

Holds kinship not half so divine, 

No difference what titles or crowns 

The favored line of pedigree bounds; 

To be an adopted daughter or generous son 

Of Kansas is the proudest title ever won ; 

For the honors of citizenship here 

Are only given to consciences clear; 

It matters not about wealth or pride 

To this strict rule you must subscribe, 

Or leastways pass upon your journey on 

To other than '^The Land of Sun and Song;' 

For not a single thing that ill betides 

Long in this lovely realm abides. 

XXXVII. 
But kind reader, indulgent friend, 
This Kansas poem must come to an end, 
As each and all things earthly do; 
'Twill be the same with me and you; 
But I trust a mark you 've sometime made, 
That to your credit will give aid, 
In admitting you into the yonder fold, 
Past the celestial streets of gold. 
If the scroll of eternity there I see, 
I shall be interested in Kansas history. 
And when my other duties are done, 
I'll finish reading of the land of sun; 



THE VISION. 253 

# 

There, mayhap, pen a more deathless line 
To the redeemed multitudes from this clime. 

XXXVIII. 
Ye heavenly Muses, I bid you now farewell; 
Much have you aided by your spell. 
In rhyming out this musical lay so long, 
Of the favored '^Land of Sun and Song;" 
Seldom hath fairer theme reached thine ear. 
In the tuneful, the celestial sphere. 
Adieu, thou bright visitants, adieu. 
Reader, I give this my song to you, 
And trust that we shall together stroll. 
Singing songs in the Aidenn goal. 

FINIS. 



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